


A Hit Before Dying

by Andromedanewton



Series: Anita Blake (My Minor Canon-Divergence) [4]
Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Claustrophobia, Drugs, F/M, Graveyard Smut, I probably forgot a lot of tags and characters will try add if I spot any, Needles, Smut, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-24 18:31:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 50,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7518859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromedanewton/pseuds/Andromedanewton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Anita agrees to help Edward in a body guarding training exercise involving his step-son, Peter, she considers it a favour to a friend, but when a real hitman raises the stakes and Edward won't take her call there is a very real chance Anita may be protecting Peter as much as he is her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay folks, here is my final part (so far, more may come eventually!) of my Anita Blake series.
> 
> Advance thank you's to everyone who has read or is reading my series', positive comments are always welcome and do put a smile on this old girl's face! 
> 
> If anyone spots any continuity errors or similar, please let me know, I am at the point where I can't see the woods for the trees with most of my work and it is appreciated!
> 
> All said and done, I will hand you over to Anita, one last time (again, for now!)

Sometimes it still amazed me that I had such a thing as a normal day. If I did then today was definitely one of them. I’d had two meetings this afternoon with clients at Animators Inc already and I was on my third and last of the day. Once I was done I could rush home, change, grab a bite to eat with the boys before I headed out for a couple of raisings. I only had time to eat with the boys before the raisings because it was January and not only were things still slow but the ground was too cold and hard even for the most determined of zombies to crawl through so most were in crypts and they were few and far between these days.   
I stood and held my hand out to my last clients. The husband stood first, taking my hand and shaking it, his wife getting up a moment later. I offered her my hand too and after a moment she took it. Her hand was a little clammy but that was no surprise, she’d been quite upset.  
'Once again, I’m very sorry for your loss.' I gave them both my most sincere, sympathetic face. 'Craig on reception will give you all the details of what happens next.'  
'Thank you, Miss Blake.' The husband said as I moved to open the door for them.  
'Any time.' I smiled again. 'And if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call us. If I’m unavailable any of my colleagues will try and help or I can call you back.'  
He nodded, and putting an arm around his wife, they left. I closed the door and sighed. Some people didn’t handle death very well. One thing I knew, if I lived to the ripe old age of ninety-seven, like that woman’s dad had, I wouldn’t want to be got up from my eternal slumber just to say goodbye. There was a lot to be said for cremation; mostly it made eternal slumber a damn sight more permanent.  
I grabbed my coat from the stand, put it on and got my purse from the desk drawer. Having shut off the light I left, saying goodnight to Craig and headed to my car. The drive home was unremarkable, in fact the last few weeks had been unremarkable. Our routine remained unbroken since New Year, and while it was working, great, but something was bugging me, like an itch on some level I couldn’t reach. It had felt like that for a couple of days now and it had only got worse. Maybe it was a deep seated neurosis with me, things were going well so something was bound to come along and screw it all up. Was I really that pessimistic? Then again maybe I was a realist. Peace never hung around my life for long so why should now be any different? No, something was brewing; it just wasn’t ready to rear its ugly head yet. Maybe I should tell the guys, Micah at the very least, and maybe even Nathaniel. They lived with me, were the biggest parts of my daily life in a way, and they’d notice if I started looking over my shoulder. I’d think on it another day perhaps, I still had my raisings to get through and standing in a crypt while the clients did their thing always gave me ample thinking time.  
I turned on the wipers as the snow started to gently fall again. The air was icy cold as it was and more snow settled on a daily basis. I was glad I had a 4x4; Micah had taken his car out earlier in the week and spun it across the road. Thankfully neither he nor the car were damaged but it meant his car was put on reserve, for use in emergencies only, with my car being used by all three of us. On the days he’d needed the car he’d drop me at work and pick me up again, today though Micah had worked from home so I had the car to myself. I didn’t mind sharing, not really, but not having the car to hand gave me the vague notion of being stranded. What if I had a crime scene to attend, or some other emergency? Did I call a cab? Okay, so it hadn’t happened but it might.  
I pulled up on the driveway and noticed the path from the cars to the house had been shovelled, again. How Nathaniel found time to do chores all day and strip all night was beyond me but he always seemed to find more things to keep him busy and still didn’t complain. To my knowledge he didn’t even mutter under his breath when completing the most menial of tasks. I was grateful for the clear path however as my heels would have made it tricky.  
'Honies, I’m home.' I called as I got through the door.  
'I never get tired of that.' Micah’s laughing voice came from the kitchen as I kicked off my shoes and threw my coat over the banister. The smell of food reached me as I got to the kitchen door and my eyes took in the feast my other senses could enjoy.  
'Have I got time to change?' I asked, watching as Nathaniel bustled by the stove and Micah laid the table.  
'If you’re fast.' Nathaniel smiled at me warmly.  
'Thanks.' I turned and ran up the stairs, unbuttoning my blouse as I went. The smell of food was weaker upstairs but whatever spices Nathaniel had used were making my mouth water almost as much as the man himself. I swapped my blouse for a t-shirt with sleeves that came to just below my elbow in a bright scarlet, my wrist sheaths easily accessible. With a v-neck it made more of a point of my cleavage than I’d have liked but even I had to admit it looked good. Black jeans next then socks and black Nikes. Add the shoulder holster with my new Browning Dual Mode and inner pants holster with Firestar and I was all set. I trotted back down the stairs and into the kitchen in time to see Nathaniel putting the last steak on its plate with potato wedges and salad. The salad he could keep but the rest looked good.  
'Coke?' Micah asked from the refrigerator on my left.   
'Please.' I nodded.  
'Good day at work?'  
'Nothing special.' I shrugged.  
'Nothing special is good.' Nathaniel said, picking up two of the plates and taking them to the table.  
I watched them putting out food and soda, both dressed simply in jeans and T’s. Micah’s jeans were deep blue denim which he’d coupled with a baby blue shirt, Nathaniel’s jeans were pale blue and his shirt white. The scene was so domesticated and one I was normally involved in that the boys seemed to realise I was still standing by the door at the same time and turned and looked at me together.   
'What’s wrong?' Micah frowned.  
I smiled. 'Nothing.' I went to them at the table. 'I was enjoying the view.'  
'You were frowning at the view.' Nathaniel said getting the last plate.  
'Concentrating.' I argued.  
'Concentrating heavily.' Micah said, sitting as I did.  
'Nothing’s wrong!' I argued.  
They shared a look as Nathaniel took his seat. 'You’re sure?' Micah turned back to me.  
'I’m sure.' I insisted.  
'But?' Nathaniel prompted.  
'There is no but!' I put down the knife and fork I had just picked up. 'No ifs; no buts; I’m fine. I’m happy. End of story.'  
'And you’re yelling because?' Micah smiled at me, trying to lighten the situation I think.  
'Because the two of you are picking on me.' I scowled.  
'I’m sorry.' He laughed. 'We didn’t mean to pick, but normally when you get that look…'  
'What look?' I interrupted.  
'All frowny for no reason.' Nathaniel said, taking a bite of steak as I glanced at him.  
'And when you get that frowny look,' Micah continued as he regained my attention, 'you normally come up with some idea as to why such domestic bliss is wrong, or a lie, when it’s not.'  
'I know its not.' I frowned at him, 'And I don’t want to ruin it. But something will.'  
'There’s the but.' Nathaniel said.  
Micah ignored him and looked at me questioningly. 'What do you mean?'  
'It’s probably nothing.' I shrugged and picked up my cutlery again, concentrating on my plate.  
'No, what’s spooked you?'  
I sighed and looked between them. Nathaniel swallowed the bite he was chewing, his face now serious. 'It just feels like, it’s silly,' I shook my head, 'it feels like something’s coming.'  
They looked at one another then back at me. 'What kind of something?' Micah asked quietly.  
'I don’t know. I’m probably imagining it.'  
'Your instincts are always right.' Nathaniel said.  
'I’ll call Jean Claude once we’re done eating.' Micah added. 'And I’ll come with you on your raisings.'  
'Guys!' I stopped them. 'I don’t think its anything to worry about, I actually feel better now I’ve told you. Please don’t make more of it than it is.'  
'You’re sure?'   
'I’m sure.' I smiled reassuringly.  
'Liar.' He smiled back.  
'I hate you can do that sometimes.' I screwed up my nose.  
'I know. Eat up and tell us about your feeling and we’ll decide whether it’s worth stepping up an alert.'  
I tried to explain the feeling as we ate. It was like I was being watched, although not. As though I had some pressure resting between my shoulder blades putting me on edge. I was sure there was no one watching me but the feeling was there, making me want to look over my shoulder but knowing whatever it was wasn’t near enough for me to see. The boys looked at one another worriedly.  
'I still think we should let Jean Claude know.' Micah insisted. 'I won’t come with you on your raisings, I know you’re already watching your back, but just in case I’ll let Jean Claude know.'  
'Do you think it could be metaphysical or physical?' Nathaniel asked.  
I shook my head. 'I don't know, I think physical but you know I struggle with isolating my abilities sometimes. It's a feeling, not an overly threatening one, just a gut instinct that says be ready.'  
Micah nodded. 'Alright. No panic stations yet but we make Jean Claude aware. Nathaniel’s right, you’re instincts are rarely off.'  
I nodded. I couldn’t argue, even if I wanted to. 'I don’t want everyone thinking they have to panic but a heads up probably isn’t a bad thing.' I admitted begrudgingly.  
'Cautious normal.' Nathaniel said.  
I agreed with him; normal but cautious worked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That thing that was niggling at Anita arrives with a proposition.

I did my raisings, no one attacked me; I drove home, no one tried to run me off the road, but still the feeling remained. The bizarre thing was it didn’t feel threatening and for me not to feel threatened was something new entirely. Even my dreams were peaceful, although I did dream I was playing hide and go seek but didn’t know who or what I was looking for. It left me with a frustrated feeling when I woke up and it lingered as I showered.  
Micah had spoken to Jean Claude who had been grateful for the warning however reminded Micah it may just be paranoia on my part as thing were going so well at the moment. At least he and Jean Claude had had the same train of thought to start with.  
'What time do you have to be at work?' Micah asked as we ate breakfast.  
'Not until just before four. Just the one today.'  
'And no raisings, right?' He raised his voice as Nathaniel turned on the vacuum in the living room.  
'Nope.' I shook my head but I kept my tone normal. Raising your voice over a vacuum was a natural reaction but with both of us having improved hearing it was unnecessary.  
'And you’re stopping over at the circus.' He nodded. It was just me at the circus tonight, maybe Micah if he made it back, but it was the full moon and the Pard tended to crash together once they’d finished hunting up a storm, at least when I wasn’t there. If I was Micah and Nathaniel tended to catch a lift back to the circus with me, sometimes Jason too, then crash there, but as I had plans tonight with Jean Claude I wouldn’t see the boys until morning unless Micah felt like driving there afterwards.  
'Yeah.' I said but Micah frowned then turned his attention to the hall through the kitchen door and Nathaniel shut off the vacuum.  
'What?' I asked, tense suddenly.  
'Someone at the door.' He said, looking back at me.  
I hadn’t heard it but his hearing was still better than mine despite its improvements. All the same he’d heard it, so had Nathaniel, as I heard the door open. I heard him speak quietly in greeting then he called; 'Anita? You know that feeling you had?'  
'Yeah?' I said casually as Micah and I got to our feet, alert.  
'I think it just showed up.' Nathaniel said, coming through into the kitchen and following him were Edward and, surprisingly, his step-son, Peter.   
I sighed and moved my hand from my gun. 'I hope this is a social call because it’s not nice to shoot a girl before she’s drunk her first cup of coffee.'  
'If I wanted to shoot you do you think you’d even see me?' Edward smiled at me with a raised eyebrow.   
'Edward, you like to do things so up close and personal I’d be able to tell what cologne you were wearing.' I shook my head and went and sat back down.  
He laughed and it was unnerving, so much so that I shivered. Edward never laughed like that unless he was enjoying himself, and I knew what Edward liked to do for fun. 'Help yourself to coffee.' I said, resuming eating. Edward would get to the point when he was ready.  
'Take a seat, Peter.' Micah offered, taking his empty plate from the table to the sink.  
'Thanks.' He said and sat opposite me.  
Both he and Edward were dressed almost identically; sensible black boots, blacker than black jeans, black t’s and black duster coats. They looked like they’d fallen out of a pamphlet advertising some weird father-son retreat.   
'You look different.' Peter said and I looked up from my plate. 'I mean good different.' He said hastily.  
I looked down at my red skirt suit, matching shoes and navy blouse. 'It’s just work wear.' I shrugged.  
'I don’t think I’ve seen you like that before.'  
'You’re not likely to again, if Anita has her way.' Edward said bringing two cups of coffee and handing one to Peter. He smiled at me as he said it so I flipped him off which made him laugh. 'Anita doesn’t like dressing up.' He explained to Peter’s confused expression as he sat in Micah’s seat, beside my own it was the only one where you had the most exits covered.  
'Why not?' Peter asked, looking back at me. 'It looks nice.'  
'It’s impractical.' I said getting up and taking my plate to Micah where he was washing the dishes. He took it off me and put it in the sink without a word. 'Have you ever tried to run from a were in three inch heels and a short skirt?' I crooked an eyebrow at him.  
'No.' He said hurriedly.  
'Pray you never do.' I said, downing my coffee.  
'What time you heading out?' Edward asked.  
'I have about an hour.' I said, checking my watch.  
'Good. No rush.' He nodded.  
I narrowed my eyes at him and went to Micah, still watching Edward. 'What’s your plan for today?' I asked Micah quietly, wrapping my arms around his waist from behind.  
'Nathaniel asked me to run to the store for cream and bagels, but I can do that later.' He said glancing over his shoulder at me. I knew what he meant was he was going to use my car and have it back in time for me to use but if I didn’t want him to leave me with Edward here he’d leave it until later.  
'No, it's okay, take my car.' I smiled reassuringly.   
'If you’re sure?'  
'I am.' I smiled and backed off so he could dry his hands.  
'I’ll get my coat. Be back soon.' He kissed me softly. 'See you guys in a while.'  
'See ya, Snagglepuss.' Edward waved as Peter murmured a goodbye. Nathaniel had gone back to his vacuuming in the living room.  
I came around the counter and leant on it, crossing my arms under my chest. 'So, what do you want, Edward?'  
'Good coffee.' He said, putting the mug down on the table.  
'I know it’s good, I chose it, why are you here?'  
He stared at me with a soft smile playing on his lips. I stared right back. 'I have a proposition for you.' He said finally and I raised an eyebrow. 'Not that kind, you nympho.' He laughed.  
'Call me that again and you’ll find yourself on your ass in my yard.' I scowled at him.  
He shrugged, as close to an apology as I was going to get. 'You know I’m training Peter.' He stated. I nodded. I knew he was, I didn’t necessarily agree but I knew. I don’t know what it was about the teenage boys I knew but they seemed to have some stupid career choices. 'I’m trying to teach him the body-guarding side of things at the moment but no one wants a bodyguard with an apprentice tagging alone.'   
'There’s a surprise.' I said. 'So where do I fall into it?'  
'I want Peter to guard you while I try hit you.'  
I went perfectly still. Was he serious? 'While you what?' I asked.  
'Try and hit you.' He repeated. 'Don’t worry I’ll just be using one of these.' He stood and pulled out a non-descript black gun, not a design I’d ever seen, but Edward drawing a gun was enough to make me pull mine, jolting alert, feet apart and Browning pointed at his chest. He laughed. 'It’s a paintball gun, Anita, geez, relax.' He popped the chamber and showed me the multi coloured contents.  
I sighed and put my gun up. 'More warning next time, Edward.'  
'You need to remember I’m not here to hurt you.' He said, shaking his head.   
'And if I hadn’t drawn you’d have berated me for being sloppy.'  
'True.' He offered me a small smile. 'Will you do it?'  
'Explain it to me properly and I’ll think about it.'  
'I want Peter to act as your bodyguard for the next couple of days and I’ll try get you with the paintball gun. If I shoot you, it’s a point off Peter, and you’re technically dead.'   
'Just how many times are you going to try and kill me?' I frowned at him.  
'As many as I can.'  
'Of course.' I nodded. I should have realised. 'If I agree to this we need some exceptions. There are some things he can’t be with me for.' I said. 'He can’t come into meetings at work; he can’t come with me if RIP call me in. Will you at least lay off the trigger finger in those circumstances?'   
'Would a real hitman?' He quirked an eyebrow at me.  
I sighed. 'C’mon, Edward, grant me this one favour. Not when I’m working.'  
'It wouldn’t be a fair exercise.' He shook his head.  
'Why me?' I asked imploringly.  
'Because of all my contacts you’re the smallest. Peter at least has a chance to bundle you to the ground if necessary.' He waved a hand at Peter. 'Plus you know our situation. And I trust you to watch over Peter as one of your own.'  
'I thought I was the one doing the watching?' Peter said from the table.  
I rolled my eyes. I don’t think Peter realised what he meant.  
'I don’t mean with me, Peter.' Edward said seriously. 'There have been nastier things after Anita than me and if it comes down to it I trust her to watch your ass over her own.'  
Peter’s eyes went wide for a moment and I realised the last sentence had been a little graphic, or at least to his teenage mind. 'Alright.' Peter said quietly as though that would stop us noticing the blush.   
'Will you do it?' Edward turned back to me. 'If not I’ll call Olaf and…'  
'Not funny.' I frowned at him. 'I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this but…alright.'  
'Great.' He smiled.  
'Just one thing, how long for exactly?'   
'Let’s start with three days.' I nodded. 'Peter, go get your bag out of the car.'  
'Thanks, Anita.' Peter grinned at me as he went past.  
'Sure.' I said, watching him go. As he passed the living room Nathaniel turned off the vacuum and Peter said something as he passed. I shook my head. The enthusiasm of youth for stupid things never ceased to amaze me. 'So when do we…' I stopped as Edward pointed the gun on me, a sideways smile on his face. He pulled the trigger and I tensed as the paintball hit me right beside my belly button. I cried out at the stinging it created. I looked down at the bright yellow splat mark on my blouse then back up at Edward. 'What the fuck did you do that for?'  
'Lesson one; never trust any one with your mark.' He continued to smile as he put the gun up.   
'What happened?' Nathaniel asked, rushing to my side from the door.  
'Edward was born then thirty something years later I got shot.' I scowled untucking the blouse and looking at the small welt that had appeared on my skin.  
'Oh man, I hope that’s water based.' Nathaniel shook his head and pulled on the shirt tail to look at the stain. 'If it’s not I’m sending you the cleaning bill.' He looked at Edward who just shrugged. 'Take it off so I can get it in to soak. And mind you don’t get it on the jacket, that’s dry clean only.' Nathaniel was already pushing the jacket off my shoulders.  
'I hate you, Edward.' I said, starting on my belt buckle to remove my holster.  
'Hang this on the back of the chair.' Nathaniel shoved the jacket into Edward’s hands then started on my buttons.  
'No, you don’t.' Edward hung the jacket up as he was asked. 'You just hate what I do to you sometimes.'  
'What did I miss?' Peter came back into the kitchen with a small holdall.  
'Your first lesson.' Edward looked at him seriously. 'You left Anita alone with someone who could have been a threat. Never do that. Because of your sloppiness she’s dead.'  
'And pissed!' I growled as Nathaniel took the shirt off me and to the sink.  
Peter lowered his head, obviously down in some way about having failed already. He turned his head to look at me…and realised I was now just wearing my bra. His eyes went wide and flickered to my face then back down again. I’d forgotten just how eye catching this red silk with the black lace trim number was. I sighed, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do as his eyes widened more, and headed towards the stairs to find another blouse. I was halfway up when Peter called me from the bottom. 'Anita, wait!'  
'I’m getting a new top, Peter, I’ll be right back.'  
'But you’re unarmed.' He said, still following me.  
'No, I’m not.' I replied, not looking back.  
'Come on, Anita, I’ve failed Edward once, don’t let me do it again so soon.'  
That made me stop. Edward was a hard man to live up to, I knew that, and I didn’t want to burst Peter’s bubble before it had begun to form. 'Alright.' I glanced over my shoulder. 'You can wait outside the door.'  
'But…'  
'Take it or leave it.' I said, my hand on the knob.  
'Take it.' He muttered and I went in and closed the door behind me. What kind of bodyguard was he going to be if he kept lingering on my breasts? Alright, I had to cut him a little slack, he was eighteen and although I wasn’t the first pair of breasts he had seen and most likely not the last, I was the breasts attached to his crush. Why the hell had I agreed to this? I mulled it over as I got the only other blouses out of the closet that went with this suit; a black one and a forest green silk one. I’d look more festive than I wanted to in the green so the black it was and Bert could lump it, just this once. I put on the blouse and as I buttoned it there was a soft knock on the door.  
'What?' I called.  
'I have your Browning and shoulder holster.' Peter’s voice came through the wood.  
I sighed. 'Just a second.' I fastened the last button. 'Okay, you can come in.' I started tucking the blouse into my skirt. He came in and glanced around the room and although I was sure he was checking for invisible threats I was equally sure he was just being nosey as he’d never been in here before. 'Just put it on the bed.'  
'It’s okay, I’ll help you.'  
'I can do it myself.' I fixed him with a firm look.  
'Are you punishing me because I looked at your breasts?' He asked sheepishly.  
It was my turn to blush. 'No.' I said, taking the belt and holster off him and threading them expertly.  
'Then why are you so mad?'  
'A lot of reasons.' I buckled the belt and took the Browning off him, putting it up.  
'Am I one of the reasons?'  
'You’re getting there. Turn around.' He did without asking why and I hitched up my skirt, pulling the blouse straight so I had smooth lines. 'Okay, back downstairs, oh great bodyguard.' I said, heading for the door.  
'Let me go first, okay?' He reached the door before me. 'Just in case Edward wants to be a real asshole and is waiting around the corner.'  
That made my lips twitch in the start of a smile. It was just like Edward to do that. I nodded at let him. As it happened he wasn’t, in fact he wasn’t even in the house.  
'He said to tell you he’ll see you around.' Nathaniel said from the sink where he was scrubbing my shirt frantically.  
'Great.' I nodded. 'Can I ask a favour?'  
'Of course.' Nathaniel looked up at me with a frown.  
'Can you buy a couple of paintball guns, one each for me and Peter? If Edward wants to play we’ll play, but on my terms. I want to be able to shoot the bastard back.'  
'I should be able to get some at the big sports store.' Nathaniel nodded. He looked down at the stain. 'At least this seems to be coming out or I’d buy you an extra shirt too.'  
'Thank goodness. Maybe I should wear PVC or leather for the next few days just so it wipes clean.'  
'I can call Jean Claude if you like.' Nathaniel grinned at me. 'I’m sure he has plenty in your size just ready and waiting.'  
'Yeah, maybe we won’t mention it to him.' I wrinkled my nose.  
'If it comes down to that or shopping for replacement clothes?' Nathaniel asked.  
'I’ll send you shopping.' I winked at him.   
We waited for Micah to return from the store then explained to him what was going on and it was time for work. I had to give Peter his due, he wasn’t bad already, he checked outside before we left and escorted me to the car. It seemed kind of weird with him being so young but as scary as it was he had the knack. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward is an arsehole; Jean Claude and Anita try out a new location; Peter is unimpressed with Anita lying to him; two new hitmen try to make their marks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really forgot just how long each of these chapters are! So much going on in this one! Mostly people try and kill Anita other than Jean Claude, of course, whose suggestion leads to SMUT SMUT SMUT! And bloodletting. You have been warned!

Edward shot me as I got out of the car in the parking lot, a nice purple mark on my leather trench coat. Thank goodness Nathaniel had made the suggestion or I might have been wearing the regular duster coat. I wiped it off with one of the wet wipes I kept in the glove, sighed and went into the office. Peter waited in the reception area while I had my meeting. Once I was finished Peter came through and handed me a piece of paper.  
'The lady on reception asked me to give you this.' He said.  
I read it. 'I have to call Jean Claude.' I said, sitting back down at the desk.  
Two rings and he answered.  
'Bonsoir, ma petite. What is this I hear about someone guarding your precious body?'  
I laughed. 'Practising, Jean Claude, practising. I guess you spoke to Micah?'  
'Certainment. Edward is using you for target practice, no less.'  
'With paint.' I said.  
'And you are in the company of his protégé at the moment?'  
'Yeah.' I said, glancing at Peter who had taken up a post by the door. 'He’s actually pretty good.'  
'How many times has Edward ‘killed’ you so far today?'  
'Twice.' I said after a moment’s hesitation.  
'Then I would say he is not pretty good at all.' He sighed. 'Honestly, ma petite, why do you volunteer for such things?'  
'You do stupid stuff for friends, you know that.'  
'And what of your visit to the circus tonight?'  
I paused again. 'I hadn’t thought of that. Hold on.' I lifted the phone away from my ear. 'Peter, do you mind waiting outside, this is private.'  
'Sure.' He nodded and went out.  
'I don’t really want to bring Peter to the circus for the night and I don’t think you want us there if Edward’s going to try and storm the place to paint me pink.' I said into the phone as soon as the door was shut.  
'I would take you in any night; you know that, however it may be an idea to keep the friendly fire away from the circus. If I invite Death’s step-son into the daytime resting place of some of my most trusted people it would not sit well with them.'  
'I understand.' I sighed. I had been looking forward to tonight too.  
'What of the ardeur, ma petite? With Micah and Nathaniel unavailable, not to mention Jason and Ra…'   
'I’ll meet you at Guilty Pleasures, can I bring Peter there?' I interrupted.  
'It would be easier if you did not bring him to any of my public interests. Or rather it would be better not to tempt Edward to any of my public interests.' He was quiet for a moment. 'You have no raisings tonight, correct?'  
'Correct.' I replied.  
'Does Peter know this?'  
'I don’t think so.' I shrugged. 'I don’t remember telling him. What are you thinking, Jean Claude?'  
'I am thinking dirty little thoughts about you, ma petite.'  
I rolled my eyes. 'When aren’t you?'  
He laughed and it was good, so good I shuddered, closed my eyes and sighed. 'Humour me for a moment, ma petite, I shall explain it all.'  
He explained it all and he was right, it was dirty, kind of, and if we got caught the boys at RPIT would have a field day with me, but it certainly appealed. Shame it was so cold but he assured me that wouldn’t matter. We’d see.  
I opened the door and Peter was just how I had expected him to be, standing to one side in a very professional pose.  
'All done?' He asked.   
'All done.' I nodded and led the way out of the building. I only spoke again once we were outside. 'I have one raising then we can go home for the night.'  
'And then?'  
'And then I crash. It’s not very often I get an early finish so I’m going to make the most of it.'  
'You’re just going to sleep?'  
'I’ll eat.' I shrugged. 'Nathaniel was leaving us a couple of meals on plates in the refrigerator so we’re okay for food.'  
'Maybe we could go to a movie or something.' He suggested.  
'And have Edward sit behind us and shoot me in the back of the head? No, thanks.' I shook my head as I unlocked the car. Speaking of Edward, I stopped for a moment in the dark and listened. I was sure he was out there somewhere, watching us, probably taking aim and…I ducked and a paintball exploded on the window.  
'Shit!' Peter shouted and ran around the car, putting himself between me and wherever Edward was. I opened the door as I heard another shot explode and Peter yelped. I shook my head, biting back some choice comments about boys and their toys, wishing I had a paint gun myself, and climbed into the car, slamming the door and starting the engine. Peter ran back around the car and got in the passenger seat with a quick; 'Go!' and I drove off.  
'Why didn’t you say how much they hurt?' Peter complained pulling his top away from his shoulder, no doubt looking at the welt he got.   
'Because you’d have just thought I was bitching about nothing.' I said, driving on. I kept looking in the mirror, watching for any vehicle that seemed to be following. So far there wasn’t one but that didn’t mean Edward wasn’t there.  
'How did you know to duck when you did?' He asked, helping himself to a wet wipe and cleaning up as best he could.  
'I heard it coming.'  
'Really?'  
'Actually, no, I heard the second one. The first time I just got this idea of Edward taking aim and figured ducking wasn’t a bad idea.'  
'Kind of like a psychic thing?'   
I glanced over to see him looking at me curiously. 'I’m not psychic.' I shook my head. 'I guess I just know how Edward thinks and I was still long enough for him to get a decent shot at my head.'  
'And I wasn’t there to stop it…again.' He said.  
'Don’t worry, my mind was elsewhere too.'  
'My mind shouldn’t be elsewhere.' He said angrily. 'I should be focused, but I’m not.'  
'Maybe that’s because you know me.' I said.  
'What do you mean?' The anger was still in his voice.  
'If I was a real body-guarding job chances were you wouldn’t know me, you wouldn’t want to talk to me like we’re friends, or know I’m capable of looking after myself, I’d just be the job.'  
'You’re saying I’m being sloppy because I care about you?' He frowned. 'Because that doesn’t make any sense.'  
'No, not because you care about me, Peter, because you know me. There’s a difference.'  
'I don’t see how.' He slumped back in his seat, his arms folded.  
'You’re too busy socialising to notice the threat!'   
We rode in silence for several minutes until I put on my turn signal into the parking lot of the cemetery Jean Claude had suggested. There were no other cars of course and I turned the engine off but left the keys in so Peter could have music and heat if he wanted it.  
'You have to stay here.' I said, my hand on the door.  
'No way, what kind of a bodyguard does that make me?' He scowled. He was pretty good at it but I’d been doing it for years.  
'It means you respect my client’s privacy. Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a loved one brought back from the dead in front of you and then pour your heart out to a bunch of strangers?' My voice was firm.  
'But I…' He started.  
'But nothing, Peter, it’s a hard enough time as it is without having extra people there watching. Trust me, I’ll be fine.'  
'How long before I should come make sure of that?'  
I thought. 'Give me about forty five minutes. I may be back in less but probably not.'  
He nodded. 'I’ll watch the car.'  
'Good man.' I nodded, getting out and slamming the door. I didn’t look back as I made my way across the cemetery towards the crypts at the back as Jean Claude had instructed me to. Just before I walked behind the nearest crypt I turned and waved at Peter, reassuringly I hoped, then walked behind the ancient stone wall. My heels sank in the soft earth and I felt a chill run up my spine that had nothing to do with the cold winter breeze that even here, sheltered by the lines of crypts, bit through my clothes to nip along my skin. But no, this chill wasn’t the weather. I turned and saw Jean Claude behind me, leaning against the wall casually, one leg bent at the knee, booted foot against the wall. I knew he hadn’t been there a moment ago, I’d just walked past there, but there he was as though he’d been hanging around for a while waiting for me. With the moon full and sky clear it was as light as day and gave me perfect illumination to see him by. I looked him over and it was all I could do to stay standing in one spot. He hadn’t dressed for the weather, he really only needed to do that to blend in, he didn’t feel the cold, but right now he was dressed for me. A transparent red shirt hung open around his pale chest, waving enticingly in the breeze. Black leather pants that buckled up the outside of either leg encased him like a second skin, tucked into knee length leather boots. His hair flowed around his face and shoulders, made living by the movement the wind gave it. He stood completely still, staring at me with a small smile on his face. He could have been some beautiful work of art, showing the difference between the movement of his clothes and hair and the stillness of his body, but I didn’t want to just stand here enjoying the view.   
'We match.' I said finally, indicating to the red and black combo we were both wearing.  
'Non, ma petite,' he shook his head, suddenly alive, 'not quite.' He appeared before me without me seeing him move and I gasped. He smiled at me, amused that he could still surprise me. 'But if you and I were completely matching you may catch your death of cold.' He ran his fingertips down his chest and my eyes followed them, mouth dry.  
'I don’t catch colds.' I whispered, unable to get much more than that passed my lips.  
'That is a very good thing.' He murmured and suddenly his lips were on mine, his hands pressed to my cheeks, fingers in my hair, holding me as he fed at my mouth.  
I overcame my surprise and ran my hands up his chest, he was cool to the touch from the air but there was a warmth under it that showed he had fed tonight. His nipples were firm before I even reached them and I was sure it was the weather but the firm points alone made things inside me clench and the ardeur roll through me like a silken touch.  
Jean Claude growled into my mouth and stepped into me, pushing me until my back hit the wall of the crypt behind us, his body pressed against mine in a solid line. His hands slid from my face down my body to the hem of my skirt and ran his hands over the lace of my stockings, raising the skirt as he did with the heels of his hands. He pulled away from me, merely a breath and narrowed his eyes at me.   
'Is it not cold enough to warrant hose, ma petite?' He whispered curiously.  
'It’s never too cold for nice underwear.' I said, surprised how normal my voice sounded.  
'This is true.' He smiled wryly and ran his hands over my hips while grinding himself against me.  
I moaned inaudibly and forced him back enough with my hands that I could work on his belt as his fingers slid over the lace and higher. The feel of his flesh on mine made me gasp and he took advantage of my mouth being open, kissing me fully. The sheer desperation of the kiss made my hands shake, making it hard to undo the button and when I finally reached for the zipper his hands moved over mine, stopping them.  
'I’m sorry, ma petite, but if I do not stop you, you may do me some damage.' He laughed softly.  
'Damn anticipation.' I smiled apologetically.   
'There is nothing wrong with anticipation.' He said sliding down his zip and he fell free into my waiting hands. He groaned as I caressed him, head tilted back, and I leant into him, kissing his chest and up to his collarbone. 'However anticipation can be overrated.'  
His hands moved back to my thighs and up to my hips, his thumbs hooked into the tops of my underwear and slid them down. The wind was biting against my skin but within moments I no longer cared. Jean Claude raised my leg with a hand on my thigh and gradually pushed himself inside me up to the hilt and I would have cried out had he not stolen it with another kiss. He didn’t move, other than to kiss me and it gave me the chance to savour every inch of him inside me, how he filled me perfectly, like he was meant to be there.  
He drew back from me and this close up his deep blue eyes seemed to glow. 'Feed, ma petite.' He murmured and started a slow rhythm, sliding out of me in an elongated glide then back in again. I’d almost forgotten that the ardeur was lurking but just naming it was enough to call it back. With all the other men the ardeur tended to wait until they lost control to feed but with Jean Claude it was easier to feed from the start; he knew lust, hell he was lust, and I drank him down. Just the way he looked at me began to sate the ardeur, the lust in his face so plain I could taste it. The eye contact alone was an excellent appetiser and Jean Claude moved his hand to my other thigh and lifted me effortlessly, holding me against the wall easily, allowing him to take up a more comfortable rhythm without the height distance creating an issue.  
The ardeur drew on Jean Claude where our bodies touched and I knew he was doing a whole lot of projecting to speed the moment along. Normally we didn’t worry about time but right now we had a purpose rather than sheer enjoyment, feeding the ardeur taking precedence over anything else. Not that this wasn’t pleasurable of course, but we took no extra time exploring one another.   
I locked my ankles together behind Jean Claude and he increased his speed, pounding me into the wall behind but that only added to the impending ecstasy. He kissed me as he pummelled into me, slightly to one side of my mouth and across to my jaw as his onslaught drew me closer to that crystalline edge, the familiar tingling starting deep within me and still the ardeur fed. The pleasurable pain in its entirety, the cold wall against my back, the heat of Jean Claude’s body inside and against mine, the blurring line of where I stopped and Jean Claude began, drew me so close I could feel it just out of reach. His hands caressed my thighs as he kissed down my throat and licked over my pulse, wet and cold, making me groan out loud, my pulse racing further in response to his closeness to it.   
'Please, Jean Claude.' I murmured. 'Please.'  
He didn’t need asking again. His fangs sank into my neck and after the momentary stinging the orgasm hit me, the feel of him inside me in two such intimate ways being too much for my body to hold off anymore. I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from crying out as the heat spread between my legs, pulling me further over the edge. Jean Claude pulled away from my throat and kissed me suddenly. He knew that the penetration of his bite alone had been enough and he had fed already, it was merely for our pleasure. The kiss was forceful and the blood I tasted I knew was not just from Jean Claude’s lips but from my own, having torn it with my teeth so rough was the kiss.  
Jean Claude growled and suddenly pushed his way inside me as far as he could, pinning me to the wall and shuddering as the ardeur fed on him and his release.  
Eventually the climax stopped for us both and Jean Claude slid free of me, lowering my feet gently to the ground. He pulled my underwear back up and slid us both to the ground, sitting with our backs to the wall. Carefully he refastened his pants as I sat waiting for my breathing to slow down again, my heart to stop racing. I leant my head back, eyes closed and licked my cut lip. It was only a small nick but they always hurt the most, although the bleeding was at least stopping. I laughed and it was a high joyous sound, not one I made often. I opened my eyes to see Jean Claude looking at me with an amused smile.  
'Are you well, ma petite?' He asked teasingly.  
'Oh yeah.' I chuckled. 'That was good, right?' I turned my head to look at him.  
'Ma petite, when is it never good?' He raised an eyebrow at me.  
'Never. That is it’s never not good.' I clarified. 'But that was naughty good.'  
'Naughty good?' He laughed. 'We have been naughty before, very naughty in fact.'  
'Not in a public place we haven’t.' I grinned.  
'Non, c’est vrais. This is a first for us.' He nodded then raised his hand and wiped his thumb across my chin. 'You are red.' He showed me his thumb.  
I looked at his lips, shining with my blood and lipstick and knew that was what had spread across my face. 'Dammit, that’s going to be a giveaway.' I wiped at my chin.  
'I do not suppose you brought your handbag from the car with the wonderful make up removing cream, you have?' He asked.  
I shook my head. 'Nope and the wipes are in the glove.'  
'Then yes it, will be a giveaway.'  
'Next time we get more organised.'   
'Next time?' He sounded pleased. 'We will have another outdoor excursion, ma petite?'  
'Yeah but in warmer weather and we’ll be more prepared for the clean up.' I laughed.  
'If you will permit me to act like an embarrassing parent for a moment I will do what I can.' He offered.  
I frowned, not sure what he meant but willing to let him try. 'Sure.'  
He took off his shirt, leaving his upper body glowing as pale and bright as the moon itself. He took a clean part of the shirt, licked it and wiped it across my chin. I started laughing. 'If you do not stay still it will not come off.' He laughed himself.  
'I’m sorry, it can stay on, save your shirt.'  
'And what of Peter?'  
'He can think what he likes. Hell, I might even tell him the truth.' I grinned.  
'You would?' He seemed surprised.  
'If just for the look on his face.' I shrugged. 'I don’t know, he might get pissed that I lied to him.'  
He cocked his head to one side and looked off to one side as though listening. 'Would he come looking for you so soon?'  
'No.' I whispered and started reaching for the Browning.  
'I did not think so.' He whispered. He turned quickly and grabbed my upper arms, nudging my hand away from the gun but launching us skywards. There was a blur of movement and the sound of something on the wind and we stopped as suddenly as we had begun. We were behind my car and I was kind of pleased to see Peter half out of the door with his gun pointed at us, his face serious.  
'It’s all good, Peter.' I said, not sure it was.  
'Wait here.' Jean Claude said and he was gone again.  
'What happened? What did I miss?' Peter asked desperately, coming to my side.  
'Long story, not sure what happened at the end.' I glanced down and realised I was missing a shoe. Crap. 'Get in the car again.' I said and headed to the drivers door. Once in I leant over Peter, grabbed the wet wipes from the glove and pulled one out. I used the rear view to wipe off as much make up and blood as I could. I still had a pinkish tinge though.  
'Is that blood?' Peter asked, pulling on my hand with the wipe in it.  
'Lipstick and blood.' I said looking at him.   
His eyes went wide then he frowned at me disapprovingly as he let my arm go again. 'You didn’t really have a raising did you?'  
'No, but I think Edward got more than he bargained for.' I said, trying not to blush.  
'What do you mean?'  
'Try not to shoot Jean Claude.' I said, sensing he was coming back and turning to the back door which promptly opened as he got in.  
'Drive, ma petite, to your home, if you would.'  
I didn’t need telling twice, I started the engine, kicked off my one shoe, made sure we were all buckled up and drove.  
'Did you see my shoe?' I asked as we drove along the highway.  
'I have your shoe; however I would be more concerned by what just occurred.'  
'What exactly did just occur?' Peter asked.  
I glanced at Jean Claude in the rear view. He shrugged. How I answered was up to me. 'You know about the ardeur, right?' I said, I planned on keeping it as simple as I could.  
'I remember.'  
'Good. We were doing that.'  
'And afterwards someone took a shot at us, as you would say, ma petite.' Jean Claude said.  
'It was probably Edward.' I said.  
'Then Edward has upped the stakes of your deal.' His hand appeared between us and I glanced down at it. In his palm sat a small, shiny, misshapen bullet.   
'Well, shit.' I said.  
'It certainly was not Edward.' Jean Claude said as I looked back at the road and Peter took the bullet to examine.  
'I guess not.'  
'Definitely not.' He said and I glanced at his reflection again. 'Asher will have what remains cleared up.' He shrugged.  
'You killed the guy?' Peter asked, turning in his seat to face Jean Claude.  
'I will not have people making attempts on Anita’s life.' Jean Claude said matter of factly.  
'It could have been you they were trying to kill.' I pointed out.  
'No, it was meant for you.' Peter said.  
'What it has my name on it?' I said sarcastically.  
'No, but it is steel, not silver.' He said, knowledgeably.  
'Well, shit.' I repeated.  
'Is it safe for Anita to go home, do you think?' Peter asked Jean Claude.  
'It should be, oui. The man is no longer a threat, however both of you be careful.'  
'When am I not?'   
'About ten minutes ago?' Peter suggested.  
'Don’t you start on me.' I threatened.  
'You weren't, though.' He argued. 'If the two of you hadn’t been smearing blood and lipstick in the graves, which can I say is kinda creepy on its own, you wouldn’t have been sitting ducks.'  
'Geez, you really are a little Edward.' I rolled my eyes.  
'I’m serious, you just put yourself at risk.' He said in a tone reminiscent of Death himself. 'If you just needed to feed the ardeur you should have said, hell I’d have fed it if it was that desperate.'  
I slammed on the brakes as I nearly ran into the back of the car in front of us. 'Um, no!' I glared at him. Horns started blaring around us and I realised traffic was moving again. I changed gear and set off.  
'It would have been better than getting yourself almost shot while you two got down and dirty.'  
I decided it was time to change the subject, slightly. 'You think Edward will take our call?'  
'Probably not. Why?'   
'It might not be a bad idea to let him know he wasn't the only shooter out tonight.'  
'I’ll call his messaging service.' Peter nodded, pulling a slim black phone from his pocket.  
We drove in relative silence, apart from Peter leaving what seemed like a cleverly coded message for Edward. If it were me I’d just go straight to the point and not care what the messaging service thought; ‘Edward, someone shot at me and Jean Claude, and it wasn’t you. Call me.’ That was probably something else Edward was training Peter in. Subtlety.   
'As long as he takes the message, knowing it’s from me, he’ll call us.' Peter assured us. I wished I was so sure. We needed Edward aware of what was going on but he was just asshole enough to not take Peter’s message as it would mess up his test. I pondered for a moment, the image of Edward creeping through the trees around my house…and bumping into a guy with a real gun. Could be kinda funny in a sick and twisted way only my mind would appreciate.  
'A penny for them, ma petite.' Jean Claude said and I almost jumped. He’d been so quiet in the back I’d almost forgotten he was there, doing that stiller than still thing the dead can. Almost forgotten. It was kind of hard to forget he was around, not only from the power he exuded, prickling along my skin like familiar fingertips, but from the damp patch I was sitting in after not cleaning up properly after what we’d done. I’d definitely need a shower when I got in. A shower and a coffee. Maybe two. Oh and the food.  
'Just thinking ironically.' I shrugged and he seemed to accept this as an answer.  
We pulled into my drive with no incident. Micah’s car was gone but I knew he’d had to brave the roads to get him and Nathaniel to the lupanar so that was no real surprise.  
'The boys are out tonight, if it was someone with an actual hit on me I wouldn't come home.' I stopped on the driveway but didn't turn off the engine.  
'Need I remind you that perhaps there is someone with just that.' Peter gave me a serious look which I returned.  
'Yeah but Jean Claude took care of him and if he used steel then chances are he doesn't think I'm anything more than human.'  
'Edward would have used silver.' Peter said quietly and his voice was quiet, more than it should have been.  
'Edward's told you what to do if you ever need to take me out, hasn't he?' Although I didn't mean it to my voice came out cold. I actually found it kind of amusing, but I think surprise had overridden my vocal chords for a moment, making it sound like I was worried Peter would actually pull the trigger.  
Peter looked at his hands in his lap, still holding the bullet, then back at me, his eyes holding real pain. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could Jean Claude laughed.  
'Oh my goodness, this is too funny.' He sighed as he wiped away an imaginary tear. 'Does he have a contingency plan for all of us?' Peter looked back at Jean Claude and blushed. 'He does?' Jean Claude laughed more. 'Please, could you share, it would make a very old man very happy?'  
'I can't...' Peter looked at me pleadingly. 'Edward...'  
'I don't need to know.' I patted Peter's leg briefly. 'But it is nice to know he's passing on what he needs to in case I ever become a threat.' I turned back to Jean Claude. 'It's not that funny. I'm glad Edward is prepared in case anything should happen, what with the power we all have.'  
'Monsier Edward would have his hands very full, if he came for us all in force.'  
'Yeah.' Peter said in a way that made me turn back to him.  
'He does have a plan for all of us, right?' I asked. I hadn't even realised it but this was something I should have considered a long time ago.  
'Kind of.' He squirmed in his seat.   
'Peter, he either does or he doesn't, which is it?' I turned further in the seat to look at him, restricted only by my seatbelt.  
'He has one for you.' He looked at me guiltily. 'The rest are just...general. He said they'd all be like standard preternatural hits, once you were gone.'  
Jean Claude gasped comically. 'I am disappointed.'  
'So am I.' I said seriously. I was disappointed in Edward for honestly thinking that once I was gone everyone else would just fall over easily. Maybe I needed to have a chat with him about his priorities, should the worst happen.  
'But you were saying about the hitman tonight. He might think you're human but it's still a threat to you and you can't assume someone else hasn't taken the hit at the same time. What would you do if I wasn't here, if Edward wasn't making me feel bad every time you set foot outside?'  
I looked at Jean Claude; we had discussed this and I still wasn't keen on making Edward storm the circus, if he was that stupid in the first place. 'I wouldn't go home.' I sighed eventually.  
'Where would you go?'  
'The circus.' I looked back at Peter. 'But if we go there and Edward tries to get in to turn me Smurf blue then he might be seriously hurt. Security at the circus is tighter than it was the last time he was there.'  
Peter leaned over and gave me a hard look, one I knew he was trying to mimic of Edward's in fact, and when he spoke it was slowly, carefully, and his voice was almost empty. 'Edward will have checked that out, you can be sure of it, but that's not the problem. The real problem is I am now guarding you from a very real threat, but Edward doesn't know that. We do whatever it is you would do if I were Edward and this was a real hitman. We go to the circus and we step up your security and warn everyone close to you because next time it might not be a paintball you get hit with.'  
I swallowed and I didn't know why, I wasn't afraid of Peter, maybe I was afraid of how much like Edward he was, but it was more likely the fact that he was right. I was endangering myself and Peter because I was worried about Edward.  
'Just a second.' I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced up at the moon. It wasn't that high yet and I might just be able to get Micah before he hit the lupanar proper and furry.  
The phone rang in my ear several times and I was just about to hang up when Micah finally answered. 'Hey, beautiful.'  
'Hey.' I replied and almost forgot why I'd called until I felt Peter lean further forward in his seat beside me as a dark little reminder. 'Sorry, I know you're about to go running but I thought I'd better give you a heads up. Someone took a shot at me tonight and it wasn't Edward.'  
Micah was quiet for a moment and I heard him sigh. 'You're sure it wasn't Edward? He didn't just up the stakes?'  
'Sure I'm sure. I think we're going to the circus instead of home tonight, just in case. Not that I want Edward trying to break in to prove he can but the point has been made this is what I would do in normal circumstances. Other than Edward playing who's got the bigger weapon this is normal circumstances so I need to be cautious.'  
'What happened?' I could hear the concern in his voice and it made me want to be at the lupanar with him, just so I was closer. As though sensing this Jean Claude touched my shoulder lightly and I turned and smiled at him.  
'It's a dirty little story but Jean Claude was with me, and it was a steel bullet so we're pretty sure it wasn't for him. I'm going to play it safe and I'll see you later.'  
'I know you will be but be careful. I guess the fact Nathaniel left you a couple of paintball guns in the kitchen is a bit of a waste now.' He laughed although it wasn't really funny.  
'Kind of.' I smiled at nothing. 'I'm going to let you go. I'm a sitting duck right now so I need to get indoors.'  
'I'll speak to you later. I love you.'  
'I love you more.'  
'I love you mostest.' He hung up and I sighed.  
'That was gross.' Peter said and I shot him a look. 'But if that's your thing.'  
'It's our thing.' I shrugged, unfastening my belt. 'Peter, have you had any driving lessons from Edward yet?'  
'Nothing other the regular ones and I don't think that's what you mean.'  
'No, I meant evasive.' I confirmed as I shut off the engine and looked at the house again. It didn't look any different but bad guys never put a nice advertisement outside when they were trying to be covert, Edward definitely wouldn't.  
'I need to go in for something.'  
'Is it not something we have at the circus, ma petite?' Jean Claude asked, having remained quiet for the last few moments.  
'Kevlar.' I gave him a look. 'My kind of size kevlar.'  
He knew I meant it wasn't for me so he just nodded slowly. 'Bon, allow me to check the house first then Peter and yourself can follow me in and get what you need.'  
'Okay.' I let them get out of the car first, like a good little mark, and Jean Claude went to the house with the keys in his palm as Peter stood over me, his body between me and the outside world. I was smaller than him and once I got the door shut I pulled his duster coat and we ran to the house in a low crouch. No one shot at us, no paintballs exploded, but we then had to crouch by the front door waiting for Jean Claude to give the all clear. It felt like forever waiting for him to call my name, crouched in the cold, waiting, but call me he did and I ducked through the door, closely followed by Peter, who shut it and stepped to one side immediately, checking through the glass at the side. That impressed me. Too many people thought home meant safe, but people could just as easily break in and ruin that little illusion. Jean Claude came down the stairs slowly and gracefully.   
'If someone has been here, ma petite, they are no longer. I have checked from basement to attic and it is, as you would say, all clear.'  
'Thank you.' I touched his bare arm as I passed him with a smile. 'Peter, come here.' I went into the kitchen but didn't turn on the light. On the side, as promised, were two paintball guns for Peter and I with a small love note from Nathaniel which made me smile. I tucked the note in my pocket and passed him a gun. We needed real weapons in our holsters but we could keep these beside us just in case. I still wanted a little revenge on Edward...speaking of which. I sensed rather than saw movement from outside but not knowing whether it could be a real assassin or just Edward being his usual dickish self I had to err on the side of caution. I grabbed Peter by the lapel and all but threw him to the floor, hitting the linoleum seconds after him. There was the sound of breaking glass and a soft 'thud thud' from where we had stood seconds earlier. Instinct took over and my body knew I had a gun in my hand, not caring what kind. I looked at the outside through the glass and could see a figure retreating from the deck. I went up on my knees and shot back through the broken panes after aiming. I heard a yelp but the guy didn't go down which was when I remembered I was holding a paintball gun, not the dual mode. I dropped the paintball gun and swapped to the Browning as I got to my feet in a low crouch and rushed for the door.  
'Jean Claude!' I yelled as I hit the doors, pushing through them after throwing the locks. I knew he was behind me, his power a cool breeze at my back as we hit the deck. My night vision was made better by the full moon in the clear sky and I could see a retreating figure nearing the trees that surrounded the yard.  
'If that's not Edward, can you keep him alive long enough for us to question him?' I asked quietly.  
Jean Claude laughed softly and I felt rather than saw him launch himself skywards as Peter called my name. I saw the man slump suddenly, as though a black cloth were dropped over him, and realised it was something Jean Claude had done as I stopped running and let Peter catch me up.  
'I don't think that was Edward.' I said as he drew alongside me.  
'How can you tell?' He pulled on my arm, trying to get me back inside.  
'He said ow when I shot him with the paintball. Edward wouldn't even say ow if I ripped his balls off.' I glanced at him as I let him pull me back onto the deck, noting he flinched when I described the kind of damage Edward would try and take without complaining.  
And as we were about to enter the house, as though he had heard us talking, I sucked in air through my teeth as a paintball exploded on my left hand.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pursued.

Jean Claude called for back up to come and take my would be assassin away for questioning. He left him hogtied on my porch with the promise he would not have the chance to get away but insisted that we leave as soon as I had fetched my kevlar so that we may get me to a more secure location.   
My hand was stinging like a bitch from the paintball, a bruise already forming as though I had been hit by something much bigger, like a baseball. Why was it the stupidest wounds always hurt the most? Okay, so I knew that wasn't actually true but paintballs really smart when you aren't wearing all the protective gear. I hoped Edward might have noticed the other hitman, I would be surprised if he hadn't seen Jean Claude take him down and I didn't think Edward would just disappear once he'd shot me and move on to another location, he had to realise there was something going on even if he hadn't checked his answering service.  
I caved on the ride to the circus and called his cellphone. I knew he wouldn't like it but tough, there were more important things going on than his little test now and I'd rather he was on side than the hinderance he was being. I was almost sure he would take my call, unless he really hadn't seen anything in my yard in which case he'd think I was just calling to bitch at him.   
I kept looking in my mirrors suspiciously as I drove, wondering where Edward could be, wondering who else could be following us. I might have been a cop by a technicality but that didn't mean I knew when I was being tailed.   
'Peter, do you know what car Edward was using?'  
'Just a sedan we hired at the airport. I have the licence plate if you want it.'  
I shook my head. 'I think he will probably realise you know it and will have returned it.' I glanced in the mirror again at one light that seemed to be bobbing through traffic and I frowned. 'Does Edward know how to ride a motorcycle?'  
'Edward can drive anything.' He said cautiously, looking through the back window, past Jean Claude where he sat silently listening to us.  
'Huh. So the guy who is cutting through traffic towards us, do I risk it not being Edward and let him come up alongside me or do I peel away and go on the defensive and hope I'm not about to get Death killed?' I looked at Jean Claude in the rearview mirror. He smiled at me. Which didn't give me a damn clue.  
'Punch it.' Peter said, turning back to me. 'I think if Edward was going to use a motorcycle he'd choose something much meatier than that hairdryer.'  
I raised an eyebrow at that comment. Peter could tell what kind of bike it was at this distance, or at least that it was a low powered one? Edward really had been giving him his homework assignments.  
'Okay we're going to do this properly and clear a path.' I flicked on the siren and lights and suddenly traffic cleared for us, to the sides of the road. I didn't want to abuse my privileges as a marshal but I think a hitman classed as an emergency. I pulled into the middle of the lanes and pushed the engine a little more to get me through the traffic that started to filter back together as I passed. It made the motorcyclists life a little harder but he could still weave in and out of traffic better than I could.  
'I'm not going to lose him.' I murmured, realising just how much more agile the smaller vehicle was. 'Jean Claude, where do I head for? I can't burn up to the circus full of patrons with a hitman on my tail!'  
'A good point, ma petite. Might I make a suggestion?'  
'I'm all ears.'  
'Pull over.'  
I was driving too fast to risk looking at him but my eyes went wide. 'What the fuck? Pull over? Really?'  
'Perhaps not here, but pull off the road as soon as you are able. As soon as we stop disembark the car immediately, Anita if you would climb across to Peter's door, that will be perfect.'  
'You're not really going to pull over?' Peter looked at me in alarm.  
'What can I say, he's a conniving bastard but he's my conniving bastard. I trust him.' I shrugged and indicated to come off at the next junction. Peter leant over and flipped it back off again. 'Don't tip him off as to which way we're going.'  
He had a point so I skipped the turning and instead carried on straight.  
'There, ma petite.' Jean Claude pointed between us and I realised he must have taken his belt off. 'That parking lot, if you will. Park with Peter's side away from the entrance, if you would be so kind.'  
'You going to let us in on the rest of the plan?' I asked as I cut across two lanes and into the lot he had indicated to.  
'There will be no need, just get out of the car, quickly.'  
'You're the boss.' I muttered and he laughed.  
'I am many things, ma petite, but you and I have always stood on a level playing field.'  
'Glad you finally realised that.' I swung the car around, stopped the engine, pulled out the keys and was glad to see Peter already halfway out the door, Jean Claude beyond him already between the door and the rest of the lot offering us some protection. He had Peter's overnight bag and the holdall in his hand containing my kevlar. I crawled over and out of the door, stowing my keys as we all sidestepped so we could shut the door and I locked it.  
'Now what?' I could hear rather than see the small bike approaching. That couldn't be a good thing.  
'If you would take Peter in your arms, ma petite, all will become clear.' Jean Claude had a height advantage and could see over the car, his face serious.  
'Really?'  
'Really. Arms around his neck. Now, if you would.' I sighed but did as he suggested and wrapped my arms around Peter's neck. I had to go on tiptoes to reach. 'Peter, you should hold on tightly to Anita, if you please.' Peter wrapped his arms around me without hesitation but his eyes were wide, showing a lot of white. 'Both of you, hold on.' Jean Claude wrapped his arm around Peter's slender frame until he reached my waistband and took a tight grip, his arm with the holdalls coming around my other side like a completed circuit. I tightened my grip on Peter as I realised what was about to happen and then, without any more warning, we were skyward.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is an idiot; Anita gets pretty damn cross; underground signals suck; Anita gives Peter a new assignment.

We touched down in the staff parking lot at the rear of the Circus of the Damned. Actually that wasn't true. Jean Claude touched down and put Peter's feet on the floor but Peter was holding me so firmly I was held off the ground, tight against his body. A glance at his face showed wide eyes and his mouth partially open.  
'Wow.' He breathed into my face from close up.  
'Peter, put me down.' I said, quietly, as Jean Claude stepped away from us and towards the entrance which someone had opened, after seeing us land I assumed.  
'That's such a rush.' His voice was little more than a whisper and I realised how heavily he was breathing. I realised a second too late what he meant to do as his lips brushed mine and I wasn't happy about it. I shoved him in the chest with both hands, strong enough to break his hold on me, and I dropped to the floor.  
'Don't, Peter, just...don't...ever.' I waved my finger at him as anger rolled through me, still debating whether I should have slapped him or not.  
'Sorry. I just thought...sorry.' He shook his head.  
'It's unprofessional!' I yelled at him as I stalked towards the door, hearing his feet following mine on the gravel.  
'Sorry, Anita, really, I'm so sorry!' He was calling as he followed me.  
Jean Claude was waiting by the door for me, my bag now in the hands of one of the guards. He frowned at me, his head tilted to one side. 'I have a feeling I missed something, ma petite.'  
'Freaking teenage boys.' I muttered as I stormed through the door. I started straight down the stairs, knowing Peter would be behind me and Jean Claude along soon enough.  
I pulled off my heels and trotted down the too many awkward stairs, knowing Peter would be struggling to keep up with me but I didn't care. He had nearly got a face full of fist for that stunt and now I couldn't bare to think about even looking at him. Edward and his stupid freaking ideas. As soon as I reached the bottom I'd try send him a text message telling him the deal was off. I was done. Then I remembered I didn't always get a signal down underground so I stopped and checked my phone. As I thought, no service.  
I turned and ran back up the stairs past Peter who was still apologising.  
'Where are you going?' He stopped saying sorry long enough to ask.  
'I need to message Edward.' I said, looking up the stairs to Jean Claude coming towards me and waved my cellphone at him with one hand while the other shoved my shoes into his hands. 'No signal, again.'  
'I will have the order of signal boosters chased again, ma petite. Would you like me to wait for you?'  
'No, it's okay. Go do your king thing and tell the guards not to kill Edward, but any other assassin is fair game.'  
'And what of his protégé?'  
I looked up from the phone display. I had been composing the message ready to send as soon as I reached signal again. 'He's fired.'  
'Anita, no!' Peter, I realised, had followed me up the stairs. 'I'm sorry, it was unprofessional. It won't happen again, I promise.'  
'No, you're right, it won't.' I glared at him and I was pleased to see he actually flinched. 'Because we are done.'  
'Just give me one more chance, please.' The look he gave me was pitiful, he didn't want to fail Edward, for which I couldn't blame him, but he had crossed a line.  
'If this were a real job you'd have just ruined your entire reputation, maybe even career, if you can call sociopath a career choice! You don't get handsy with the clients!'  
'Handsy?' Jean Claude said and I looked at him. I wasn't sure what expression I had expected to see on his face but amusement wasn't it.  
'Yeah, or in his case, lipsy.'  
'You cannot blame the boy for trying.' He shrugged. 'How many other men would have passed up such an opportunity if you were in their arms?'  
'You're not helping.' I marched past him until I found a signal and pressed send, waiting until I got the little 'delivered' notification before coming back down the stairs where they were waiting for me, talking quietly. 'Message sent. This experiment is over.'  
I went past them both quickly, stowing my phone again. What I needed was some time alone in the gym. Beating an innocent punching bag to death. At least it would be quiet with it being the full moon.   
I knew they had resumed their trek down the stairs behind me but I didn't wait or look back. I needed away from Peter and I didn't appreciate Jean Claude sticking up for him. I had enough trouble thinking of Cynric, Sin, as a man and he was nineteen. Sure, Peter was eighteen and I may have slept with Sin when he was sixteen but that wasn't by choice, plus he was one of my animals. It made a big difference. It still made me feel icky, but the thought of what Peter had more than suggested...nope. Just, nope.  
I knocked on the door at the bottom and pressed myself against it so they could catch my scent and a moment later it opened. I didn't even pause for niceties, just blazed though the curtain, through the living area towards the bedroom. I needed to change.  
I slammed the door, even though there was no one to see it, it just made me feel a little better, released some aggression. Maybe I should scream into a pillow. I threw my coat on a chair by the fireplace and, grabbing some work out clothes from the drawers, I started to change. I was in my jogging shorts and sports bra when there was a knock on the door. It had to be Peter. Jean Claude wouldn't have knocked.  
I pulled my vest over my head before I went to the door. Peter had lost his coat and stood looking worriedly at me.  
'What?' I demanded.  
'I'm sorry.'  
'So you keep saying.' I sat on the bed and pulled on my socks.  
'I know it was unprofessional and it won't happen again.' He came into the room slowly, glancing around in case he missed anything before his eyes came back to me on the orgy sized bed.  
'No, it won't, because you're services are no longer required. We are safe at the circus and we will just hunker down until we hear from Edward, then you're gone.' I pulled on one sneaker and tied the laces as I spoke, tucking them into my shoe when they were done.  
'Come on, Anita, please, just one more chance?' He begged and it was truly pathetic.  
I gave him a look, a good hard one, paused in putting on my second Nike. He did look sorry, he reeked of guilt, and he had probably never experienced the rush, as he called it, you got from both vampiric flight or running with the pack like I had. He was young, hormonal, stupid, and had a huge pair of combat boots to fill. I didn't like it but I actually felt sorry for him. I sighed in resignation. 'One last chance, but this time, I treat you like one of our guards in training. You trail me but you also train with me. You learn to fight, my way, not Edward's way. And you keep your body parts to yourself. All of them.'  
'Unless it's to save you, no touching, I promise.'  
'Because I won't hesitate to slap you next time, Peter. I mean it.'  
He nodded, smiling at me. 'No unnecessary touching.'  
'Good. Did you bring any gym clothes?'  
He frowned at me. 'You're going to the gym? I thought you said we were staying here?'  
'We are. We have our own training area. You bring any or not?'  
'I have sneakers but nothing else.' He shrugged.  
'No problem.' I slipped off the bed after I finished tying my other shoe. I pulled one of Nathaniel's t's and a pair of running shorts out of the drawers and threw them at Peter. 'Get changed. I'll see you in the living area.'  
Twenty minutes later we were stretching in the training area.  
'You guys have the most amazing stuff down here!' Peter was admiring the equipment in between stretches. 'And an entire running track! No wonder you spend so much time here.'  
'That's not why I spend time here.' I finished my last calf stretch and rocked my neck back and forth before shaking my arms loose. 'It's a bonus.'  
'It's a hell of a bonus.' He muttered but I heard him just fine.  
'So, do you know how to use any of this?'  
'Most of it.' He was pressing buttons on the display of a speed bike. It was more of a cool down piece of equipment here; the strength of the lycanthropes meant that they could out pedal any exercise bike and we had had several broken before we figured out it should just be used for what amounted to a gentle cycle to a were.  
'The weights are set up for weres so don't try and show off, you could really hurt yourself.'  
'I thought you said you were going to train me, your way?' He frowned at me.  
'I'll give you some of the hand to hand pointers I've gained from our guards and we can spar, but first I need to run this anger off in case I really hurt you.'  
'You're still mad?'  
'I'm still mad but I accepted your apology so I need to not be in a place where I still want to beat the shit out of you on the practice mats.' I started towards the track.  
'I run too.' He fell into step beside me.  
'Knock yourself out, kiddo.' I looked at him. 'But not like I do, you don't.'  
I left him standing. True, my speed wasn't that of a full lycanthrope but the amount of different strains of the disease I carried made me faster and I trained regularly to give me even more of an edge. I had to chase things for a living, so I ran to keep fit and stay alive. As I completed my first lap Peter was still standing there watching me. Maybe he hadn't seen someone run like I could before, or maybe he was just staring because it was me. The sports bra took care of a lot of the unnecessary jiggle but he was still a teenage boy with a teenage boy's imagination. I hoped it was the speed I was going.  
By the time I completed my second lap he had moved onto the weights and I was glad. I didn't like running with an audience.  
I didn't stop until I felt myself beginning to tire and then I pushed myself to do one more lap. Bad guys didn't care if you were flagging and pushing through that extra barrier would help me in the long run but as I slowed and stretched out I saw spots as my muscles burned. I'd pushed myself but that was fine, that was okay, and by the time I got back to the centre my vision was clear although my breathing was still heavy. I took a bottle of water from the tall fridge by the wall and sipped it. You didn't want to guzzle water after a heavy run, even if it did feel amazing to do so.  
Peter finished the set of reps he was doing, wiped down the equipment like a good little gym user, and came down to where I was sitting cooling down.  
'You still mad at me?' He asked before dropping down beside me.  
I shook my head. 'Not so much. Just keep it together. I'm a job, Peter; not your friend, not Edward's crime fighting partner, just a job.'  
'But you're not.' He said seriously. 'You fired me, remember?'  
'And I said one last chance.'  
'And now that there's a professional hit out on you and we're hiding in the circus I'm pretty much surplus to requirements.'  
I sighed. 'Actually now our roles are kind of reversed. I keep you safe from harm until Edward either gets the message or gives up. I think he'd be pretty pissed if you got killed by a real hitman trying to save me from him, the phantom paintball menace.'  
Peter laughed and it was a far too grown up sound out of his mouth. 'So am I actually your bodyguard now or not?'  
'I guess not.' I shrugged. 'But I can treat you like a trainee, give you a taste of what it's like to work for the monsters instead of hunting them.' I gave him a sideways smile.  
'I'd like that. Always good to have another perspective.' He looked down at his feet where he had his knees pulled up to his chest. 'You still want to show me some hand to hand because that's going to be kinda hard if I'm not allowed to touch you.'  
'I'm going to kick your ass for your backchat.' I got to my feet again, narrowing my eyes at him but it was all lighthearted.  
'So now touching is okay?' He got up beside me. 'Because I don't want to break some rule.'  
'You know you wouldn't have broken any rules if you hadn't tried to kiss me in the first place, right?' I threw my water and towel to one side and started unlacing my shoes.  
'You want to spar barefoot?' He frowned at me.  
'I don't want to hurt you.' He raised an eyebrow and started removing his own. 'You can leave yours on if you want to.'  
'Nuh uh.' He shook his head. 'Fair is fair. We do this the same or not at all.'  
'Edward doesn't care about fair as long as he wins.'  
'I'll try not to let his training influence me. I don't want to hurt you either.' He challenged.  
'Oh, cocky.' I threw my shoes aside.  
'I outweigh you and I have a greater reach.' He threw his shoes after mine. 'Edward's made sure I weigh up my opponents pros and cons in a fight.'  
'Good. You know what they say about small packages?' I set my feet apart for balance.  
'Good things come in them?' He altered his own stance.  
'Eh, wrong metaphor. I meant books and covers.'   
'Don't judge a...oof!' I kicked him lightly in the stomach, pushing him back a few steps.  
'You're mind isn't on the job again, Peter.' I reminded him.  
He straightened and took up a stance again, almost identical to the one I had seen Edward use countless times and smiled slightly. 'Okay, you're getting my A game now, remember that.'  
'Come at me, bro.' I gave him the universal symbol for 'come try kick my ass', pulling my fingers towards my palms.  
He wasn't bad. He really knew his stuff and he did have me on weight, height and reach, but I had speed and extra strength, which I found I was needing to fall back on once he stopped holding back. He was fast and strong for his size, something Edward had always prided himself on being, but I recognised the fighting style and soon adapted, forcing him onto the offensive. Only once did I get too close and he was able to flip me onto my back which I quickly recovered from, rolling around and taking his own legs out.  
Another ten minutes and I called time out as realised Jean Claude was watching us from near the door.  
'I'll give Edward his due, he's taught you well and you must be a fast learner.' I passed him a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.  
'You know Edward. You either succeed or he won't train you. You learn fast or you drop out.'  
'He's a harsh task master.' I picked up my shoes, threw the towel in one of the many hampers that littered the area and took a slug of my water.  
'Did he train you in hand to hand?'  
I shook my head. 'Nah. If he'd tried that in the early days he'd have killed me and if we tried it now I might just kill him.'  
'You think you could kill him? Really?' Peter stopped my progress towards Jean Claude and I looked up at him.  
'I think I could. I'd regret it, but I'm not really human any more, Peter. My body thinks it's more than one lycanthrope without the shifting and I'm a necromancer. I sometimes debate how human I even was to begin with.'  
'Edward likes you too much to try and kill you.'  
I laughed, short and sharp. 'Now he does, he used to threaten to torture me all the time and he constantly used to say he was going to challenge me to a draw down, see who was fastest.'  
'He actually used to threaten you?'  
'That was a long time ago.' I started us walking again.  
'Have you and Edward ever...you know.' That made me stop again and give him a look which made him blush more than his flushed cheeks already were.  
'Bumped uglies? Done the dirty? Fucked each others brains out?' He went redder and couldn't meet my eyes. 'No, Edward and I have never, ever, and will never, ever go there.'  
'He told me that he'd be prepared to feed the ardeur if you needed it, when you guys are on assignment.'  
I looked at Jean Claude and knew he could hear every word we were saying. 'Yeah, he told me.' I smirked. 'Lucky for him I can not only now feed from a distance but I can eat other emotions too, other than just lust. And if I'm honest if Edward and I really ever hit the sack for anything other than sleeping I get a feeling we would be very incompatible.'  
'In what way?'  
'We're too competitive.' I drank some more water. 'I think we'd both try and out stamina each other and then no one wins.'  
'What does that mean?'  
'You ever heard of orgasm denial?' He avoided my eyes again so I guessed not. 'Edward and I have always been about head games and denying one another and ourselves to see who could go longest without giving in just wouldn't do it for the ardeur. It wants to be fed, not denied.''  
We had reached Jean Claude who was smirking behind his hand. I was glad he thought that the fact I had already thought through how badly feeding the ardeur with Edward would go, funny.  
'He told me to tell you if you were ever in need and I could help that I should.'   
Jean Claude did laugh out loud then and I gave Peter a pouty face. 'Oh Peter, that's so sweet. But I'd break you like a twig.'  
'Hey!' He sounded insulted but I'd already told him that no, we wouldn't be doing that.  
Jean Claude threaded my arm through his and led us back out of the gym. 'I am afraid, Peter, I must agree with her. You would not, as they say, know what hit you.'  
'Needs must, for the greater good, that's what Edward said.' He spoke from behind us where he was following.  
'Edward can say it as much as he likes, it's in hand. Thanks, but no thanks.' I tried.  
'But...'  
I stopped again and turned both Jean Claude and I so we could see Peter. 'Really, Peter, it's not that I don't appreciate the offer, but I kind of have a very full dance card and less need than I had for donors. I'm pleased Edward seems to have prepared you for every eventuality my life could throw at us but don't think because you offered you get the next first refusal. It's off the table for us. No sex. Period.'  
He didn't seem to know what to say so I was grateful when he just nodded and we were able to carry on on our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note; I personally love the idea that Edward and Anita would be incompatible in bed, because with them it's always about the head games and I would not put it past either of them trying to out stamina the other even if the passion did get to them. Having said that I've been having some major Edward feels this week and was considering finishing another (yes I have a few still laying around that aren't part of my series') fic I started with everyone's favourite monster hitman. Anyone want me to finish it? It would only be a ficlet but could be fun!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are back from the lupanar; Peter gets more than he bargained for; coffee; Edward makes contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay peeps, I am away for a week from today but connection permitting I will still try post a chapter a day!
> 
> The whole waking up with Micah on the loveseat, yeah that's come back to me in the middle of the night sometimes! Can't think of a better way to wake up, but don't tell my hubby! Eep!

Jean Claude had someone show Peter where he could shower and change and once I was clean we met back in the living area. We never got around to getting the food Nathaniel had left us, and I felt bad that something that had been so lovingly prepared was going to waste, but we were provided with a meal each and we debated sleeping arrangements. Peter thought we should stay together, which I didn't entirely disagree with, but all the rooms had one large bed as they were used by people who slept puppy pile style. That wouldn't work for us. I could have put us in Jean Claude's bed as we could easily have a side each, and a barricade of pillows if necessary, but I knew that Micah and Nathaniel would be returning to sleep off their running and hunting and I wasn't sure Peter would appreciate waking up outnumbered so heavily by other men. Finally we agreed to sleep in the living area, it was a long, drawn out compromise but it worked. I could sleep on the small love seat, long legged Peter would get the couch. We were given blankets and pillows and a promise from Jean Claude that we would not be disturbed unless it was urgent or Edward finally reared his head.  
We settled down and I was surprised by how quickly I fell into a fitful sleep. I only woke once, and it was worth it, to have Micah move me enough that he could slide onto the love seat beneath me, settling me between his legs and up his naked chest in a tight hug, his heart beating against my cheek as Nathaniel, still in leopard form, curled up on the floor beside us then shifted back and out cold. I'd never imagined a small sofa could feel so good.  
When I awoke Micah was petting my hair and I could tell by his breathing he was just waking himself, the petting a habit I didn't mind at all. It was one of my favourite ways to wake up.  
A deep breath brought the smell of coffee to my waking senses and I sighed, nuzzling Micah's chest satisfactorily.  
'So I bring the coffee and he gets the nuzzling? No fair.' Jason's voice reached my ear from behind the couch and I turned to see him smiling down at me.  
'Let me wake up a little more before the teasing starts, Jason.' I smiled at him. 'I do appreciate you bringing coffee though.'  
'Why don't you come up here and show me how grateful you are?' He bent over the love seat, grinning.  
'Wait your turn.' Micah murmured and tilted my head towards him with his fingers under my chin. I scooched up his chest to meet his lips. He caressed my cheek as our lips touched, a gentle movement against one another. 'Good morning.' He whispered into my mouth, smiling warmly.  
I looked into his chartreuse eyes and felt my smile match his. 'Good morning to you too, did you boys have fun last night?'  
'Mm but I missed you.' And he kissed me again, this time much more heatedly. He used the one arm still around me to shift me so I laid on top of him properly, our lower bodies pressed together so I could feel him semi firm all the way up to my belly button. His tongue, lips and teeth drew a murmur out of me as he explored hungrily, his hand from my cheek sliding into my hair and taking a tight grip as his other hand pressed my lower body firmer into his. His hips ground up against mine as he growled into my mouth but pulled away suddenly with a laugh. 'Sorry.'  
'Don't be sorry for that. Ever.' I replied breathily.  
'I can't top that.' Jason's voice reminded us we had an audience of at least one and he kissed the top of my head and walked away, to pour coffee I hoped.  
'I'd like to try.' Nathaniel's voice made me turn to him on the floor, having not realised he was awake. He was completely naked, of course, leaning on his arms on the side of the love seat, looking up at us with his chin on his forearms, he almost looked innocent, apart from his eyes. They held heat that I had come to be very familiar with, to love.  
Micah gave me over to Nathaniel who went up on his knees and took my face in his hands, cupping me gently as he slowly approached my lips, so slowly the anticipation was almost painful. He kept eye contact with those beautiful lavender eyes of his until he was a breath away when he glanced down before his lips claimed mine in a firm but sensual kiss that had me tingling even more than I had been. While Micah's kiss had been hungry, Nathaniel's was gentler, with long, drawn out movements, teasingly parting from me before closing the gap again for more caresses that were all lips with just a teasing brush of tongue from time to time. I whimpered, closing my eyes at the sheer difference between the two of them, my heart racing, and I could feel heat growing in me just from touching them both at the same time; Micah still pressed firmly to me, both his hands now kneading my back as Nathaniel coaxed another incoherent noise from me.  
I lost all thought of anything but the two men touching me until Jason's voice broke through the sounds of us in the silence, but it took me a moment to process what he had said, and when it did register I pulled away from Nathaniel quickly; 'Coffee, Peter?'  
I'd forgotten he was here, forgotten why I was sleeping in the lounge and not the bedroom, forgotten we had things going on I really should have been concentrating on other than this. I looked into Nathaniel's eyes, knowing we were both at least a little glazed, all three of us breathing heavily as though we had been doing more.  
'Damnit.' I muttered and Nathaniel broke into a smile as Micah laughed.  
'I think we all forgot we had a virtually underage audience.' Micah said quietly so only we, and probably Jason, could hear.  
'Yeah and he doesn't need any more encouragement.'  
That made Micah frowned. 'Just what did we miss last night? Besides the hitman?'  
'Two hitmen, one of which was going to be questioned. But I'll tell you the rest later.' I knelt back on my heels and pulled the blanket off my legs, wondering momentarily whether to throw it over Micah or Nathaniel and decided in the end Micah won; as Nimir Raj he was higher up the food chain, he was also more modest than Nathaniel and in all honesty the sheer size of him might have been threatening to Peter. I stepped over Nathaniel's legs, grateful I had worn calf length sweats and a baggy leopard t-shirt to sleep in, and finally turned to Peter, determined not to be embarrassed. He was sitting up, his knees drawn up and slightly wide eyed. Considering he had been training with Edward he sure embarrassed easy, but then he was a teenage boy and I imagine this kind of thing wasn't on Edward's crib sheet.  
'Did you sleep well?' I asked him.  
'Yeah.' He nodded, a little too fast. 'Can someone show me where the bathroom is again. I don't want to get lost.'  
'I'll do it.' Nathaniel stood beside me and Peter's eyes went wider at the nakedness in front of him.  
'Throw some underwear on, maybe.' I suggested. 'And he can use the one in our room.'  
Nathaniel gave me a puzzled look before realisation reached his eyes. His mouth made a cute little 'o', which I couldn't resist going up on tiptoes and kissing quickly, before he smiled. 'I'll do that too.'  
I shook my head and admired the view as Nathaniel walked away from us, until Peter walked rather awkwardly behind him and I realised he might have enjoyed the display rather than been embarrassed by it.  
Micah laughed once they were sure to be out of hearing range, or at least Peter's hearing range, and turning to sit he used my hand to pull me back down onto the love seat beside him.  
'Oh poor Peter.' He put an arm around my waist, pulling me closer. 'Where were we?'  
'You need underwear too.' I reminded him half heartedly.  
'I'll tuck the blanket around me.' He murmured into my lips.  
The thought of him still naked under just a blanket did nothing for my sanity or self control and I closed the gap between us, pulling him against me with one arm around his shoulders and the other in his hair. He normally tied it back, I knew he wasn't a great fan of it being long, he kept it that way for me, but having come back from the lupanar it was still loose and tousled and incredibly inviting.  
He pulled me onto his lap to straddle him easily, his hand sliding under my sleep shirt and as his skin touched mine it was like a switch was thrown and goosebumps broke out over my entire body. I knew Micah could feel the difference too as he ground his hips into me and pushed his tongue into my mouth. While one of his hands slid up my back the other went below the waistband of my sweats, sliding over my butt and hip. I moaned at the sensations and again it was Jason who broke the moment.  
'You know, Peter might have morning wood with a large dose of Anita horn thrown in but he's still a teenage boy and he really won't take long, not after the display you guys put on.' He came and passed me a coffee with an apologetic smile.  
'I swear you're doing this on purpose.' I frowned at him, as Micah first took his hands out of my clothes, allowing me to get off his lap to sit beside him again, then took the mugs Jason offered us with thanks.  
'It's a sad day when I'm the voice of reason.' He shrugged. 'But it's not deliberate. I promise.'  
'I'll believe you. Hundreds wouldn't, but I will.' I smiled at him. He was still one of my best friends and occasional bedmate. I'd make it up to him in time, I was sure.  
'I do actually have a message for you from Jean Claude.' Jason went and got his own mug before sitting in the chair to my left, crossing one leg over the other. He was wearing running shorts and nothing else, his hair mussed up.  
'Which is?'  
'Your hitman friend from last night has talked but didn't give up anything useful.'  
'You mean the one we hogtied, not Edward, right?' I blew across the top of the mug before taking a sip.  
'That's the one. The hit came through a few anonymous sources, no name attached, and he doesn't know anything else. We could really use Edward if we want an actual insiders help.'  
'Yeah, well, he's not taking our call.' I leant down and felt around under the love seat for my phone.  
'Right a bit.' Jason said, guiding my hand verbally until I found it.  
'Thanks.' I checked it, sure enough, no messages, no missed calls.  
'So what are we going to do about the hit?' Micah asked. 'I know you won't want to be stuck down here indefinitely.' His hand found mine as I put the phone in my pocket.  
'I don't know.' I shrugged. 'I could try calling Bernardo, see if he can get a message to Edward or even find anything about who put the money up. I can't think of anything else to try if our hitman in chains doesn't know anything.'  
'They're still trying. Hoping sleep dep and a bit of torture will make him come clean.' Jason said nonchalantly.  
'Torture, really?' I looked at him in surprise.  
'Hell, yeah. No one tries to kill the queen, Anita, not without dire consequences. Jean Claude is pretty pissed about this.'  
'He didn't seem too fazed by it.' I realised he really hadn't.  
'Maybe not to you but behind the scenes he's been all over it like a rash.'  
'I don't blame him.' Micah squeezed my hand and offered me his mug, which I took as he got off the love seat and fastened the blanket around his torso before sitting back down beside me and taking his coffee again. 'I'm not overly pleased myself, but I am glad you decided to seek refuge here instead of carrying on.'  
'I guess I'm just too used to there being threats. I know I'd be pissed if it were any of you being threatened. Who's doing the torturing?'  
'At the moment, Fredo and Claudia. It was vamps until dawn.' Jason leant forward in his seat, a serious look in his normally playful eyes. 'We have to consider who this could be ourselves, if we aren't getting anywhere with him or Edward.'  
'It'll only be a matter of time until Edward contacts us. He'll either try get in here or get bored of waiting for us to leave. I don't doubt for a second he knows where we are.'  
Micah took my hand in his again. 'Send a message to Bernardo and another to Edward, it can't hurt. Remember, to attack you is to attack Jean Claude so this could even be an attempt to hurt him, or even our entire power base. You're the pivotal nut that holds us all together.' My lips twitched at him calling me a nut. It just amused me. 'Okay, what in that sentence is so amusing, because this is a pretty serious subject?'  
'Sorry, I've been called a lot of things but never a nut before.'  
'You'd rather I called you a screw?' He smiled at me. 'A bolt?'  
'I'll take nut. Just struck me as funny.' I sipped my coffee. 'But I get what you mean. It could be an attack on us in general, trying to unhinge us as a group, but if that's the case why bother trying to shoot me with a steel bullet? It's pretty well known I carry several strains of lycanthropy so silver would be more logical.'  
'That is kinda mundane.' Jason said.  
'I guess it might have just been that first hitman who hadn't done his homework. We didn't examine the bullets at the house, which reminds me, we probably need a new refrigerator and we need the glazier out again.'  
'The kitchen, again?' Micah raised his eyebrows. 'That room gets more damage than the rest of the house put together, I swear.'  
'It's those big welcoming windows. They might make it nice and light and airy but it also makes for a perfect spying opportunity. We need to think about moving somewhere with better security or less glass.'  
'You want to move?' Micah looked at me, surprised.  
'It just seems to make sense.' I shrugged. 'The house is great but if we can get somewhere that isn't so easy to access then it would be better. I moved from my old apartment to the house so I didn't endanger my neighbours but I hadn't thought about it being the perfect little spot for people to watch us without realising. At the time it was just me and I'd wanted seclusion.'  
'We'll put this on the back burner for now, but we'll discuss it properly. It sounds like a good idea though.'  
Nathaniel came through the curtain to the bedroom then wearing ripped jeans and nothing else. 'I left Peter to shower and do what he needs to do. What are we talking about?' He sat on the other side of me to Micah.  
'Who might be threatening Anita. Coffee?' Jason offered. 'I made you one up.'  
'Great, thanks.' Nathaniel got up again, kissing me on the cheek as he did, then kissing Micah's cheek, and went to the table and got his mug. 'Do we have a list of who it might be? Because it's going to be a long one.'  
'We know.' Jason replied. 'The guy in torture isn't talking and the original shooter used steel bullets. Either that first hitter isn't smart or he's been given some lousy information.'  
'What does Edward say?'  
'Nothing, he's not taking my call.' I said with a frown. 'And we know it might be someone trying to get to anyone else who is connected to me. What with me being a nut and all.'  
'A nut?' Nathaniel gave me an amused smile as he came back to sit beside me.  
'Long story.' I smiled.  
'And we're still no further forward.' Micah pointed out. 'Send your messages and we'll go from there. One of us will take it to send from a better signal area.' He took my mug off me so I could use two hands to one finger type my messages.  
As I was composing the one to Bernardo the phone on the desk rang and Jason got up to answer it while I concentrated on not misspelling words thanks to the stupid autocorrect on this thing.  
'Anita, it's for you.' Jason called and I abandoned the message to go to the desk, locking the phone in case I accidentally sent half a message on the off chance I got a signal.  
'Who is it?' I took the handset off Jason as he offered it to me.  
'We were just speaking of the devil.' He smiled at me.  
'Edward?' I mouthed at him and he nodded. 'Awesome.' I put the receiver to my ear. 'Hello?'  
'Hiding at the circus is cheating.' Came Edward's angry voice.  
'And if you checked your fucking messages you'd know why we're here. Listen to your voicemail, check your messages, and I'll have someone meet you at the door and bring you down.' I hung up on him. 'That ought to make the point.' I called up to security and let them know to bring Edward down to us.  
'It will that.' Micah smiled, getting up and coming to meet me halfway with my mug, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me close. 'You want to tell me about what happened with Peter before he comes back?'  
'It's nothing spectacular, really.' I rested my forehead on his. 'But when you're bodyguard protege tries to kiss you you have to make a point.'  
'Oh he did not!' Jason exclaimed with a laugh.  
'Yeah, he did.' I leant back and looked at him. 'And Edward had told him to offer himself up as ardeur chow.'  
'Holy shit.' Nathaniel laughed. 'You didn't hit him, did you?'  
'It was close but I'd have left a mark if I had.'  
'Well restrained.' Micah kissed my cheek and moved us back to the love seat.  
'I was pretty mad at him.' I admitted. 'I mean circumstances meant we were close physically but that's no excuse.'  
'How close physically?' Jason asked.  
'Very close.'  
'Show me.' He stood and I shook my head.  
'Won't work. You're too short.'  
'Show us with Nathaniel then.' He sat back down.  
'You know I could describe it pretty easily too.' I frowned as Nathaniel stood.  
'I'd rather see for myself.' Jason grinned.  
'You're an asshole.' I grinned back. There were worse things I could be doing. I stood in front of Nathaniel and put my arms around his neck. 'Okay, pick me up so our faces are level.'  
'He picked you up? Geez, he is brave.' Nathaniel said but instead of his arms around my waist he picked me up around the butt.  
'This is it.' I said, looking at Nathaniel. 'And he didn't really pick me up so much as he didn't put me down. Jean Claude had flown us here after we ditched my car in the parking lot of some store.'  
'Which explains why your car isn't here.' Micah said.  
'I'll get someone to pick it up for you.' Jason offered.  
'Please. I know I'm kind of stuck here but it's nice to know it's there in case RPIT call.'  
'Now would be a bad time to have to go to a crime scene.' Nathaniel said quietly, still looking at me from up close as I still was doing to him. 'So Jean Claude flew you guys back here, getting you and Peter to hold onto each other and when he landed Peter just didn't put you down?' His voice was quieter now, barely a whisper against my skin.  
'Pretty much.'  
'And he tried to kiss you.'  
'He tried to kiss me.'  
'Poor kid didn't stand a chance.' He kissed me suddenly and it took my breath away.  
'I'm guessing he didn't get that far into the kiss.' Jason said loudly as Nathaniel and I parted.  
'No, he didn't.' I murmured.  
'So how did you get him to stop?'  
'Nathaniel, loosen your grip a little, I'll need to break it.' I told him and he did as I asked. 'He didn't actually get any further than our lips touching.' I said and pushed against Nathaniel breaking his hold and dropping to my feet. 'Thank you.' I went up on tiptoes and kissed him softly.  
'Being the tallest in the room has never felt so good.' He grinned at me.  
'I missed something.' We turned our heads to see Sin coming towards us from the bedrooms. 'Because if being the tallest was what you needed I'd have won that hands down.'  
It was true, at six-four Sin was taller than Jason and Micah at five-three, and Nathaniel at five-six but that didn't mean he would have been my first choice, as much as I felt for him. 'Sorry, Sin, you're a bit too tall for that little experiment.' I smiled as he came towards us. His blue/black hair seemed mostly black in this light, falling forward over his face in a more modern cut than I was used to seeing on him yet, and I had the urge to brush it back from his face so I could see him properly, but I didn't. I let him come to me and give me a soft kiss before taking my coffee back from Micah again.  
'He's not really.' Nathaniel pointed out. 'Peter is pretty much six foot. Sin's closer in height to him than I am.'  
'Peter? Edward's son?' Sin looked between us.  
'Yeah, Anita was helping with his training and he got a bit frisky.' Jason said. 'But he's coming back now so let's stop talking about him.'  
I agreed with a nod. 'At least Edward is here now so we can get our own sociopath on the case.'  
Jason arranged breakfast and more coffee and we would go through to the dining room once Edward joined us. Peter came and sat back on the couch and I was surprised by the fact he actually folded his blankets, making a neat pile with his pillows. We told him Edward had finally got his head out of his own ass and was on his way.  
'That bathroom is pretty impressive.' Peter commented.  
'We know.' Jason said. 'Jean Claude doesn't do things by halves.'  
'We should get dressed.' Micah stood and pulled on my hand.  
'Good idea.'  
'Can we actually trust you two to get dressed if you're alone in the same room?' Jason laughed.  
'I'll come along and you can tell me what I missed.' Sin suggested.  
'We'll behave.' I replied. 'Stay here, Sin, either Peter can tell you or we can tell everyone when we eat breakfast.'  
'That's no fun.'  
'I need some time with my Nimir-Raj.'  
'Sooner we go the sooner we'll be back.' Micah started us walking towards the curtain.  
'Do you really need time alone with me or were you just trying to ditch Sin?' Micah asked quietly as we got further down the corridor.  
'There's not often a time I don't want alone time with you.' I smiled at him. 'But I do want some time. I feel like we're the only grown ups discussing this and we need to discuss it like grown ups.'  
'It's the master status thing.' Micah agreed. 'We're the ones who will be making decisions. Us, and now Edward, until Jean Claude wakes.'  
'It worries me, that if this is against our power base that everyone we just left in that room is at risk.'  
'Which is why we have bodyguards. We're always careful, you know that, but we know there's a threat so we can step up security and take appropriate measures.'  
We reached the door and he opened it, letting me go through first. I let him. Love does silly things like making you give when before you would have stood your ground.  
'I don't like it. I don't like that there have been two of them in such a close space of time. Chances are that means the reward on offer is worth people competing for.'  
'How many times have you had hits on you now?' He shut the door behind him and smiled at me.  
'Lost count.' I smiled back.  
He pushed away from the door and came towards me and that alone made my pulse speed up. 'I need to shower. If we had more time I'd ask you to join me.'  
'If we had more time I'd make you take a bath with me.' I replied. 'But we don't, so another time.'  
'Another time.' He reached me and ran his knuckles down my cheek. 'Don't let your worry rule over you. We're all in this together, equally.'  
I nodded and had to swallow my pulse before I spoke. Being this close to him made it hard to concentrate. 'I won't. I just want to find out who the money man is and maybe we can get them before they get us.'  
'Would Edward take it on for us?' His voice had gone quieter as he caressed my cheek and although the topic didn't match the tone we were setting it matched the way my heart was beating.  
'Probably. Although if it's too boring there might be a penalty bonus.'  
Micah smiled with a hint of a laugh. 'It's worth it.' And his lips met mine again.  
My hands were on his bare chest without me realising, the heat from his skin a solid thing against my palms as he pulled me against him and pressed them between us. He kissed me gently this time, soft slow caresses with enough pressure to make things flutter low inside me. He kissed from my lips across my cheek to my ear and whispered; 'I'm going to take this up again later.' Before stepping away from me, his hands trailing reluctantly down my arms.  
'You'd better.' I breathed.  
'Come talk to me while I shower?' He asked and I nodded.  
'I'll grab my clothes and dress in there with you.'  
'I'll go warm the water.' He smiled and went on ahead. It was then that I realised the blanket had loosened as we kissed and moving apart had allowed it to drop to the floor. I got to enjoy watching another of the loves of my life walk away from me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward is not happy, Anita on the other hand...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay the late posting begins! Having a week away on the beautiful Suffolk coast with my hubby and girls and it's been a busy day!

Micah was braiding his hair and I was dressed, all in black from the fitted button up shirt to the jeans, Nikes and underwear, and armed, and sitting on the bed watching him, not understanding how he could do that to his own hair, when there was one firm knock on the door and Edward came in. His face was dark and angry and he slammed the door behind them.  
'What's up, Edward?' I nodded to him.  
'Next time tell your freaking guards that I can keep my fucking weaponry.' He waved a finger at me.  
'Oops.' I shrugged. 'Honestly, Edward, I assumed they would let you keep them, given the situation.'  
'Although it makes sense why not.' Micah said, tying the end of his hair off. 'We tell the guards there's a hitman after you and then we ask Edward in who, no offence Edward, but we kind of have you on a list of check with the management before allowing entry, they're just doing their job.' He turned to face Edward. 'Sorry.'  
'How much did they take?' I asked. He gave me a hard look and I broke into a grin. 'Oh my God, they found everything?'  
'Call them up and get me my shit back. Now!'  
'Oh shit.' I laughed. 'I'm sorry but oh shit. No wonder it took you so long to get down here.' I got off the bed and went to the door.  
I laughed all the way down the corridor and I asked Jason to get security to bring down all of Edward's toys. Micah and Edward joined us minutes later and I wondered what they might have been talking about but I could ask later. Edward scowled his way past me and went to Peter, taking him as far from the rest of us as he could where we stood at the desk with fresh coffee.  
'You think he realises we can hear him?' Nathaniel asked quietly as he dropped a sugar cube in my mug.  
'Maybe. But I'm not going to tell him. I think we've antagonised him enough taking his toys away. We want him to help us.' I leant against him and let him hold me to his chest as he dipped another cube in my coffee before offering it to me to eat.  
Edward was telling Peter he should stay here when Edward leaves, that he would be back, but he wasn't to act the bodyguard any more. He was to trust me to keep him safe and not put himself in danger, did he make himself clear. He also told Peter that he wasn't sending him home in case whoever wanted me tried to take Peter as collateral. Peter nodded, said he'd do as he was told, and they headed back to us.  
'Everybody drink casual.' Jason muttered into his mug and I couldn't help it, I laughed, burying my face in my mug.  
'Well?' Edward came back to the table and grabbed a mug without putting anything into it.  
'Security are bringing your stuff.' Jason confirmed. 'And breakfast is waiting when we're ready.'  
'Not eating until I'm armed again.' Edward growled and I had to hide my smirk with my mug again.  
'I'll be right back.' I pulled away from Nathaniel and went to the curtain where the guards were.  
'Don't go out of my sight!' Edward called and I rolled my eyes, but beckoned Dev from the curtain.  
'Dev, any ETA on Death's weapons?'  
'They're bringing them down now.' He confirmed. 'But I think they'd have liked longer to admire them.'  
I leant towards him. 'Any idea if he had to take any clothes off to remove any?'  
He laughed. 'I'll ask and let you know somehow. He's seriously not happy.'  
'I know.' I grinned. 'You know how long I've waited to see Edward without weapons? Years. He always has them secreted about his person and it's some big pissing contest with him that he has the most weapons, the best toys. I'm finding it kinda hard to keep a straight face.'  
'Just keep reminding yourself someone wants you dead, that oughta sober you up.'  
'There's always someone, Dev. Just get the weapons in here asap. He's getting antsy without them. And he won't let us eat until he's rearmed.'  
'Is he trying to upset you on purpose?'  
I shrugged. 'Edward is Edward. Except when he's Ted, I guess. He dislikes being unarmed even more than I do.'  
'That's a lot.' Dev raised his eyebrows. 'I'll get them to hurry.'  
'Thanks, Dev.' I went up on tiptoes and he bent to let me kiss him briefly on the cheek. He was on duty after all.  
I went back to where Edward had made himself at home in one of the chairs, having positioned it so he could see every entrance. He glared at me over his coffee mug.  
'They're bringing them as fast as they can.' I assured him. He didn't say anything he just glared at me some more.  
'Well, this is going to be fun.' I muttered as I came back to the desk. 'We wanted Edward's help and we've pissed him off already.'  
Peter was there but that didn't bother me. Edward was glaring at everyone equally. 'I think he'd like to send me home, if he thought I'd get there safely.' Peter said softly and I took a moment to look at him. He looked...down. 'He thinks if he just has someone drop me at the airport to fly home whoever is after you might go after me as a way to get to you.'  
I nodded. I already knew that but I didn't want Peter to know we had inadvertently been eavesdropping. 'That makes sense. You're probably safer here than anywhere else right now. Just no heroics, okay?'  
'That's what Edward said.' He gave me sad eyes.  
I moved up beside him, putting our backs to the room, and spoke quietly. 'Listen, Peter, you did a good job last night; you ID'd that bike well enough that you knew it wouldn't be Edward, you're good with your sparring and I'm pretty sure that if we had had longer you'd have proven yourself to be a great bodyguard too. You haven't failed a test, you had it stopped too soon. Edward and I might have said no heroics but that doesn't mean you can't protect yourself, if you need to. Whatever happens, you concentrate on staying alive, if not for yourself, then for the fact you may one day be the help we call in situations like this. You are Death's son, maybe not in blood, but he's chosen you to follow in his footsteps. He has faith in you, and so do I.'  
He smiled at me then, a genuine one, like my words meant more to him than anything else he'd heard this morning, maybe they did, I just didn't want him thinking he was helpless. He offered me his hand which I took and he pulled me to him in the way guys normally did, patted my shoulder and stepped back. I think I just got bro hugged.  
'Don't listen to whatever bullshit she's feeding you, Peter.' Edward called over and I turned to glare at him. He didn't flinch, I'd never made Edward flinch, to my knowledge, he just glared back.  
'It's not bullshit.' I replied. 'He's a capable man and you need to treat him that way.'  
'He's not fully trained, he's at risk.' Edward stood and came and slammed his empty mug on the tray.  
'That doesn't mean he can't protect himself if needs be. I'm not saying throw him into a fight just don't discount him.'  
Edward walked around the desk to the side where Peter and I stood and I felt Peter shifting from one foot to the other as though he wanted to move away from us. 'He can take care of himself from a lot of things but a chain of assassins trying to take you out wasn't what I had in mind when I brought him to St Louis.'  
'You used to tell me to expect the unexpected.' I shrugged, tone light, trying not to start a fight.  
'I wasn't expecting it to be this unexpected.' He stood in front of me with his hands on his hips. 'Any idea who it could be after you?'  
I shook my head. 'Really it could be anyone from any group, even internationally. Not everyone likes the idea of us being such a big power base.'  
'We think it could be someone trying to take us apart, starting with Anita as the lynchpin that holds us all together.' Micah moved up to the corner nearest Edward. 'I can't explain why they would even bother with a steel bullet, unless they were an amateur hoping to get lucky and make a big score, but the fact remains Anita was their prime target, even if we are the bigger picture.'  
Edward nodded. 'Once I'm armed you give me the full story. I'll need to use a computer, get online and see what I can find, make a few calls. This is big news, if you know where to look.'  
'Thank you, Edward.' I nodded to him.   
'Don't thank me yet. Let's wait and see what we're up against.'  
Edward got his weapons back a few minutes later and excused himself to go put them all back on. I needed to find out who searched him, just so I could ask what weapons they found and where. Soon we were all seated having breakfast and Peter and I told the story of what had happened. Edward wanted to see the hitman hostage and see if he could get anything out of him. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what he planned on doing to be scarier than the weres who were already questioning him so I didn't ask. Sometimes not knowing was the greatest peace on offer.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward starts digging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early posting today as I've been up since just before five!

'It's not good.' Edward shook his head. He had been tapping away at the computer for over an hour, breaking only to make and take calls. 'Someone has put the word out you need to die, and it's a pretty penny they're offering for whoever can bring either your whole body or head to identify you to the location that will be specified on completion. And it all goes through about eight different agencies, companies, fronts and false names. All I've been able to confirm is that it originated in California.'  
I looked at Micah who shrugged so I turned back to Edward. We were seated around the conference table, just the three of us. Bram and Dev were on the door and there were more guards watching over the others, just in case anything happened.  
'How much are they offering?' I asked and Micah squeezed my hand.  
Edward looked at me then back at the screen. 'You aren't going to like it.'  
'I already don't like it. How much?'  
'Eighteen.'  
'Eighteen? Eighteen what?' I frowned.  
Edward looked at me carefully. 'Million.'   
'The fuck?' I stuttered. 'Say that again.'  
'Eighteen million dollars, Anita. That's how much someone wants you dead.' He sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers. 'That's a ridiculous sum for a hit on one person. For an entire group, maybe, but one person? That's just stupid. No mention of anyone else, just your name. Well, that and personal details on where you hang out, known affiliations, work, who with, full description, photos and warnings about your powers. It's definitely you they're after and you alone.'  
'Any time frame?' Micah asked.  
'Nope, just as soon as possible.' Edward turned the laptop he was using around and it showed so many details of my life, photos, names and addresses. It was scary, the amount of detail they had. 'Give me a little longer. I have a few more contacts getting back to me that might be able to help.'  
'Take as long as you need.' I sat back in my chair and puffed out a breath. 'What do we do until then?'  
'I'd normally say carry on as normal and I'll tail you, try catch them out. I know you can take care of yourself and I won't be far enough away for it to matter if I'm a couple of seconds behind you. But this is different. Every freaking hitman and his dog is going to be after you with a bounty like that on your head. This is our base camp, we don't leave here unless it's dire circumstances, understood?'  
'What if I get a Marshal call? Or RPIT? I can call in work and say I'm not going in but I kind of have to go if it's for the cops.'  
'Then Ted will come with you, and you bring guards, the best you have, your most trustworthy. You're the vampire queen of America, you get to be paranoid, but one thing you don't get to be is alone.'  
Micah frowned and turned his head towards the door. 'Something's going on.' He stood and let go of my hand. 'Some kind of commotion outside.'  
Edward and I shared a look. It wasn't a good one. 'Okay, Snagglepuss, get with Anita to the back of the room, just in case.' He got up and drew a gun from a holster under his left arm. 'You trust all your guards on duty?'  
'Every single one.' Micah nodded.  
'Then let's just hope you're right and this is unrelated.' Edward went to the door as Micah came back and took my left hand in his right. We moved to the corner furthest from the door and I drew my Browning. 'Can you hear anything being said?' I asked him quietly.  
'It's just noise, too much noise.' He shook his head. 'This room is virtually soundproof, even to were ears, thanks to Jean Claude's forward thinking, so meetings aren't overheard. I guess this is the only case where that backfires.'  
'I guess so.' I squeezed his hand and gave him a quick kiss.  
'Ready?' Edward asked from beside the door. He was standing to one side and I knew he planned on opening it without standing in the doorway, his gun ready by his leg.  
'Ready.' I nodded.  
Edward opened the door, pulling it hard enough to swing all the way in. To all of our surprise, Dev stood with his hand raised about to knock. Behind him stood four more of the guards that I could see, as well as Bram.  
'What is it?' Micah asked.  
Dev swallowed before he spoke. His eyes were a little too wide, his lips slightly parted. 'The circus is on fire.'  
Edward turned and looked at us. 'This is to try draw you out.'  
'How the hell did someone get close enough to set fire to the place?' I asked, ignoring Edward. I knew he was right, I didn't need to acknowledge it.  
'We don't know.' Bobby Lee came through the crowd of guards. 'The fire department are on their way and we have people up there with extinguishers. We're safe down here, the flames can't spread down the stairs, but someone is determined to try and make us all panic and leave you vulnerable.'  
'I hate that word.'  
'Send people around the perimeter, preferably rats.' Micah suggested. 'The smell of smoke will be strong but it might not be enough to mask their scent. And they are probably watching the fire exits, most likely the staff entrance, for everyone coming out. It gives you a direction to start in.'  
Bobby Lee nodded and left again, taking some of the guards with him. Dev and Bram came into the room proper but left the door open which Edward didn't seem too worried about for now.  
'I doubt whoever started the fire knows most of the circus, the living areas, are underground.' Micah continued. 'They probably think we have no choice but to flee.'  
'So let's give them what they want.' Edward suggested.  
'What?' Micah and I said as one.  
'I'm not sending you out there but you have enough guards that I know there are some other women about your height. You wear all black like the guards most of the time. Just send a group out as if they're running and see if that draws them out. Meanwhile, we stay here and wait for any news, from anywhere.' I pursed my lips, ready to argue, but Edward pointed a finger at me. 'It's a good plan and don't start saying how you don't want other people in the line of fire for you. They're guards. That's what they signed up for.'  
I sighed and nodded, putting away the Browning. 'All right, fine.'  
'You heard your queen.' Edward turned to Dev and Bram. 'Hop to it.'  
Micah nodded when they looked to him and they left the room again. Edward shut the door behind them.  
'There's no cure for stupid.' He muttered as he came back to the table and took his seat again, his gun already away.  
'What do you mean by that?' Micah asked, pulling me back to the table.  
'I mean every damn amateur in a hundred mile radius is going to try and get to Anita. The offer is too tempting.'  
'Awesome. Just freaking awesome.' I shook my head as I sat down again and dropped my head onto my hands on the table.  
'There must be something we can do?' Micah asked.  
'Wait. Just for a little while.' Edward frowned at us, but then he'd worn the same serious expression since we got in here so maybe it was that. 'When Jean Claude wakes up we will get him to get his contacts to put out feelers. Maybe you could call Richard and see if he can keep his ear to the ground, same for all the other animal leaders in the city. Offer your own reward for information of any plots against all of you, not just Anita. The last thing you need is someone with insider information getting greedy.'  
'I'll contact the other Pards we have agreements with across the country. I've visited a couple of them in California, that seems the logical place to start.'  
'Great and one last thing, the two of you, try and stick together, with Jean Claude when he's awake. You'll be safer together.'  
'Or an easier target.' I pointed out.  
'Not here, not under the circus.' Edward shook his head. 'If it was anyone else, any other situation, I would take you and go, I would separate you from all of this and protect you myself, but it's not anyone else, it's you, and you pretty much have an underground fortress here with plenty of people to keep you stocked with food and to protect you. I'm going to try not to be far from you. Surround yourself with your most trusted and those you love, stay together and don't do anything stupid.'  
Edward stood again. 'But I suggest you find rooms further into the circus and don't hang around in that living area, it's too close to the entrance. Go deep.' I nodded. Again. 'Come on. I'll help you pick somewhere.' Edward nodded towards the door.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita and her closest men get safe.

We ended up deep under the circus in one of the guest quarters. It was a large series of rooms but central to it all was a living area with lots of couches, a table and chairs, a large bed and entertainment system on one wall which was currently turned down low with a multitude of flashing colours as Jason, Sin and Peter played Mario Kart; the only real noise being someone occasionally swearing about blue shells. Micah was on his laptop at the table with the phone beside him. He had already made some calls and was waiting for call backs. Nathaniel had gone to shower when we arrived and was now drying his hair, and me, I was laying on the bed, arms out beside me, staring at the deep mauve canopy and thinking.  
I didn't know what to do. I hated not knowing what to do. I liked having a plan, I liked being proactive. I did not like laying around waiting for something to happen.  
Nathaniel came through from the other rooms and went straight to Micah where they spoke quietly. I was vaguely aware that Micah stood and hugged him and finally I identified the words 'in shock' in their conversation.  
'I'm not in shock.' I said, loudly. It was evidently loud enough that when I raised my head to look around the room everyone was looking at me. 'I mean, I am shocked, but I'm not in shock. I've been in shock, this isn't it. What this is is me angry that there's nothing I can do.'  
Nathaniel and Micah came to stand at the foot of the bed and looked down at me while the others resumed their game. Micah spoke softly, despite us all knowing everyone, perhaps with the exception of Peter, would hear. 'I'm glad to hear it. You've been pretty quiet since we came down here.'  
Nathaniel crawled onto the bed beside me and laid his head on my shoulder, my arm automatically curling around him to hold him to me. 'What did Edward say?'  
'That there is definitely a hit, it's just for me and that every idiot, whether qualified or not, who hears about it will give it a shot.'  
'How much is it for?' Peter asked and I realised I'd spoken louder than I meant to.  
'Eighteen million.' Micah replied. 'And they want to see the body.'  
'Or just my head.' I added.  
'Eighteen mil?' Jason paused the game again. 'Gee, you pissed someone off.'  
'I piss off a lot of people.'  
'Yeah, but this one you reeeeeaaallllyyy pissed off.'  
Micah spoke again but crawled onto the bottom of the bed and sat by my feet, his hand automatically slipping under the bottom of my jeans to touch the skin on my ankle. 'It originated in California. I've contacted the pards I have met there to see if they have heard anything but it's now a waiting game until we get some news.'  
'What do we do when we get the news?' Sin asked.  
'Depending on where it originated, we take care of it, one way or another.'  
'Kill the money man?' Jason asked.  
'If they're putting up that much money I doubt a warning will be enough.' Micah pointed out. 'We need to make the point too that this isn't tolerated, to attack Anita is to attack us all and we will take extreme action to stop it.'  
'Edward and I will take care of it.' Peter said, turning in his seat to face us.  
I gave him wide eyes. 'Uh, no. No, Peter, you won't. Edward, fine, but not you.'  
'This is what I'm training for, Anita.' He gave me his Edward-esque stare again. 'I want to help and taking care of this for you is best way to do that.'  
'Actually the best way you can help is probably to help watch Anita.' Micah replied, knowing I didn't want Peter involved in the actual hit. 'If Edward thinks it's something he can take care of then we let him, we'll even pay him handsomely for it, but you'll be better here, in case anything else comes after Anita. Just yesterday you were acting as her bodyguard, stay here and train some more and you'll be able to help us.'  
'I'm not trained for bodyguarding yet.' Peter argued. 'Anita was shot three times yesterday because my mind wasn't on the job.'  
'You were shot three times?' Sin looked at me.  
'With paintballs.' I held up my hand to show him the bruise which had already gone that really attractive brown/green combination. 'Edward was testing Peter, seeing how often he could hit me. But,' I looked at Peter, 'you knew it was just Edward with paintballs. Once the game was stepped up you proved your worth. I know Edward doesn't want you in the firing line but I would still trust you to do your best.'  
'Thanks, I appreciate it.' Peter gave me a small smile.  
'Not a problem, it's the truth. I'll try and make sure you're not hurt if you do the same for me. That way Edward can't complain you're actually guarding me, we're guarding each other.'  
'He can't complain about that too much.' Peter nodded. 'But I bet he will anyway.'  
We were all quiet again for almost a minute until I got an idea of something I could be doing. 'Huh.' I sat up, Nathaniel sitting with me. 'There is something I can do.' I kissed Nathaniel on the cheek and swung my legs off the bed.   
'What?' Micah frowned at me.   
'I can question our second hitman. He's in the dungeon, right?' I hopped to my feet.  
'You can't go down there alone.' Micah reminded me as he got back off the bottom of the bed.  
'I didn't say I was going alone.' I held my left hand out to him. 'If this guy is an amateur it shouldn't take too much more to scare him and if he doesn't know much about me then he will feel a lot more threatened if you start waving your clawed hands at him. And if he does know who I am then it might not come to that.'  
'I'll help you scare him.' Micah smiled, relieved I think that I wasn't planning on going alone. 'Everyone else, stay here.' He looked around. 'Just in case, we're taking Edward seriously on this. No one goes wandering around alone. There is safety in numbers.'  
'I thought it was Anita at risk.' Sin asked as he stood and came to stand beside us, meaning we both had to crane our necks to meet his gaze. 'Why are we all being so careful?'  
I let him see how worried this had me as I spoke. 'Because when you want someone dead, you will do whatever it takes to get them, including giving them the incentive to give themselves up, which in my experience is when they try and take or threaten what's yours. I don't want any of you to be used to get to me, I care about you all too much.'  
Sin put his arm around me and Micah let me go so he could hold me to him. I barely reached his chest so it kind of lost the point that I was trying to protect him but it was still a nice, comforting touch. 'I love you.' He murmured into my hair. 'And I don't want you hurting, in any way, so we'll do as you ask.'  
'Thank you.' I leant back and pushed up on my tiptoes and met him for a kiss that was soft but toe curling at the same time. I stepped out of his arms and took a look around at everyone here. I loved them all in their own way, the only ones missing were Jean Claude and...'Has anyone seen Nicky?'  
Sin thought for a moment. 'Not since last night.'   
'Does he even know what's happening? Has anyone spoken to him?' I let the fear that was twisting in my gut into my eyes as I looked back at Micah.  
He pulled me by the hand and into his arms, holding me close to him. 'I don't know, but I know it's Nicky and if any one of us is unlikely to be taken by surprise it's him. He was a mercenary when he first came to us and he knows the business probably better than any of us. I'll ask Dev or Bram to put a call out for him while we go and frighten the pants off this asshole who thought it was okay to take shots at you in our home.'  
I nodded and sighed. There wasn't much else we could do but I wouldn't relax until I knew Nicky was safe and either with me or everyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this far and realised forgot about Nicky! Oh well, I made Anita remember him too and now they have put word out to find him! Phew!
> 
> Taking my girls to a theme park today so I will be proper exhausted later!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita and Micah add to the would-be hitman's torture; Anita has a suspicion about him that needs Edward's confirmation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some graphic descriptions here, if you need to be warned! Canon typical though.

A call was put out for Nicky to get in touch immediately and the fact he didn't answer his phone straight away only made my worried butterflies worse. Micah reassured me again as we were escorted to the dungeon, being used for a change for it's named purpose rather than the fun a lot of us had been having down here.   
We heard the torture before we saw it, screams coming from far within and I inadvertently squeezed Micah's hand. I didn't want to see what had made a man scream like that but if it got us our information, helped us put a stop to this, then that was fine with me. I'd once had a rule, Edward and I had both followed it; you don't hand over a human to the monsters; but we had both learned, over time, that there were other ways to be monsters. Taking a hit on me made him a monster, no matter what species he was.  
We reached the heavy door where the screaming was emanating from and I paused before I opened it. I turned to Micah and hugged him, speaking softly so only he could hear, a whisper against his skin.   
'Why don't you wait out here? I'll call you in if I think we need to up the stakes.'  
He shook his head against me and kissed my neck. 'No, we're in this together.' He leant back. 'And you think after screams like that with Fredo and Claudia in there anything we can do will be worse?'  
'Probably not.' I smiled sadly. 'Let's get this over with.' I stepped back and let us into the room.  
Our guards waited outside as we entered what was a surprisingly well lit environment, given the name dungeon applied. It was stark and sterile like a hospital room although given the amount of blood pooled on the tiled floor under the metal table perhaps operating theatre was a better description.  
Fredo stood on the far side of the table next to a smaller table on wheels covered in various stainless steel instruments. Yeah, operating theatre was definitely a better description. Both he and Claudia looked up as the door opened and Claudia stepped back from her place on this side of the table and we could see a man strapped to the surface. He was big, at least six-three, and heavily muscled, but his naked torso was raw and bloodied and he whimpered pathetically. Fredo was good with knives and I would have been surprised if he hadn't been putting his skills to use.  
Claudia came towards us; she was still the tallest woman I had ever met, at six-six she was a formidable figure even without taking her wererat status into account. She was spattered with blood all up her bare arms, chest, face and hair.  
'We weren't expecting you.' She bowed her head to each of us.  
'I thought it was time we paid our guest a little visit.' I nodded towards the table. 'Has he given us anything meaningful?'  
'Very little.' She shook her head, her blonde ponytail shaking behind her. 'We know how he found out about the hit but nothing else.'  
'Other than I'm the mark does he know who I am?'  
'A little.' She smiled grimly. 'He knew enough to be using silver bullets, unlike the first hitman we were informed of. He can stand a lot of punishment, lesser men would have cracked by now. It makes me wonder what kind of conditioning he's been through that he hasn't.'  
'Conditioning?' I frowned as a thought came into my head. I leant around her and looked at the man again. I wanted to see his hair colour, but it was too covered in blood. 'What colour hair does he have?'  
'Blonde.'  
'And eyes?'  
'A cold blue. Why?'  
'Would you get one of the guards to see when Edward is coming?' Claudia went to the door and I turned to Micah. 'Remember the guy who trained Edward? He has a type, if you can call it that. This guy could match it.'  
Micah nodded. 'Even if he can't ID him he might know a way to make him crack, although if Edward can't trace the source this guy could be telling the truth. He might not know.'  
'I realised that. I don't like it, but I did.' I shook my head and let go of his hand. I needed to be the scary Executioner and holding hands with my honey wouldn't instil fear.  
The table was high and would come to my chest which gave me a closer view of the man than I wanted. I had been right; he was tall and muscular but too much of the muscle was on show and I realised Fredo had been creative, peeling at his skin in small amounts until his flesh oozed. He was strapped down at wrist and ankle and completely naked, his entire torso covered in blood, if not a bleeding wound then spattered. I moved to stand by his head and gave him full eye contact. His eyes flickered to me then back to Fredo and the table of bloodied instruments.  
'Not talkative, huh?' I looked at Fredo who shook his head.  
'Vocal but not talkative.'  
I looked back at the man. 'Hey,' that got his attention, 'you know who I am?' He looked at me through pain glazed eyes and his pupils tried to focus. 'I said, do you know who I am?' I said it slower and his head bobbed slowly as though it caused him extra pain. 'Great. You know what I am?'  
His eyes flickered to Fredo who nodded and then back to me again. 'You're...' his voice struggled and it took him a few swallows of his raw, skinless throat to get more words out. 'You're a lycanthrope.'  
'Nope. Try again.'   
He looked at me, back to Fredo again, there was no doubt as to who had been who out of him and Claudia in their game of bad cop, scary cop. 'I don't understand.'  
'I'm not a lycanthrope. Just a regular human. So you wasted money on specialist ammo. Next question. Do you know who has fronted the money for this?'  
He shook his head, too fast, as though he had been asked it repeatedly and still couldn't answer. 'Fredo, cut his finger off.' I said simply while maintaining eye contact, and the man screamed; 'No! No, please!'  
'Then you need to start giving us something.' I walked around to his head so he couldn't see me and bent by his ear. 'In a few hours the vampire King of America will wake and when he finds you here, with all this blood on display, when he has the first hunger from waking, and you're the one who tried to kill his queen...well, you might survive, he might keep you alive for some time, just feeding, until you're dry.' I lowered my voice to little more than a whisper. 'He might decide to tear you limb from limb; I've seen a vamp do that, it's not pretty nor quick, they've had centuries to devise ways of creatively killing things so that they stay conscious for the maximum amount of time and prolong death.' He whimpered. At least I knew I was having the desired effect. 'Of course, if you had some answers, helped in some way, I might be able to speak to him and make sure he goes easy on you...or at least ends you fast.'  
He sobbed then and closed his eyes, or rather one of them. The other had no lid to it, a neat line showing where it had been removed. I hadn't even noticed there was too much eye on show, he'd been so wide eyed. 'It's your choice, of course.' I put myself between Fredo and the table of instruments, looking them over until I saw one that was serrated, the blade bloodied. I picked it up by the handle and turned back to him with an unpleasant smile on my face. 'I've never used one of these before. Wonder how long it would take me to figure it out.' I glanced down his body slowly as thought deciding which body part I wanted to try it on and he cried out.  
'No, please, I'll tell you everything I know, but it's not much! Everything is done through an agent and front companies! I can tell you where all my equipment is, it's all on my laptop! Just, please! Don't touch me anymore!'  
Micah cleared his throat. 'As much as I'd like to believe you'll give up everything that easily,' he moved closer to his head and raised his hand, shifting it until his claws glistened in the light, 'I just want you to know that as a lycanthrope, if I so much as catch a whiff of you lying, if any of us do, you'll pray for the vampires, because I won't be nearly so kind.'  
That was it. The guy passed out and his bowels gave out. We all stepped back as one.  
'I'll hose him down then get you the information.' Fredo offered as I put the tool back on the tray.  
'Thanks.' I went back around the table to join Micah. He had shifted his hand back by the time I reached him and took my hand as I reached him.   
'We'll wait outside for Edward, he's acting as guru on this one.' I told Fredo.  
'Sure thing.' He replied.  
We met Claudia going back in the door as we left and told her we'd be right outside. We went and sat together on the floor a little way from the door, our guards standing far enough away to be protective but give us privacy.  
Micah sighed as he put his arm around me and pulled me against him. 'Well, I think that's the first time I have literally scared the shit out of someone.'  
'You were pretty impressive.' I smiled at him.  
'Do you think he will be any help?' He turned to face me.  
'I don't think he knows anything. Even if he has been trained like Edward I think he'd have caved under that amount of...duress. He was that scared he'd have given us everything.'  
'Maybe he was about to until I made him pass out.'  
'Don't feel bad for that.' I touched his cheek with my fingertips. 'When he comes to he'll remember what was threatened and spill his guts for fear of having them spilled literally, or worse. And you know I like it when you get all alpha tough guy.'  
He laughed quietly and leant in and kissed me briefly. 'What do you think Edward will be able to tell us, that he isn't going to?'  
'I'm just hoping he can identify him as one of Van Cleef's. I mean even if Edward doesn't know him he should be able to figure it out. And if he is one of Van Cleef's old students then we know we have the pros out there as well as the amateurs and if he's still one of Van Cleef's we know he's not adverse to the idea of me biting it. I trust Edward to get what he can from this.'  
'Yeah and he'll be better talking to him now, if Fredo has to get more creative there won't be much of him left.'  
'He's agreed to give it up but if his mind decides to forget the last few minutes I'll just send your cute little scary ass back in there to remind him.'  
'It's not often you get to be scarier than The Executioner.'  
'I try my best but I think you hit a nerve.'  
We got to our feet again when Edward arrived, still looking dark and serious. I realised why as soon as he opened his mouth.  
'You two were supposed to stay put.'  
'No, you told us to stick together and stay underground.' I reminded him.  
He huffed out a breath. 'All right, once you get back, no splitting off from the room until I say so, that clear enough?'  
'Sir, yes, sir!' I saluted him and I guess he didn't like my sarcasm as he stepped right up to me until we were almost touching, glaring down at me.  
'This isn't funny, Anita. I've just heard back and they've upped the ante again, they want you dead within a week, although the sooner the better still applies.'  
I breathed in deep through my nose and let it out, not wanting to get into a fight with Edward, it wouldn't help. What did help was that I'd been stared down at by him for years and I now knew that he wouldn't hurt me. 'I know it's not funny, Edward, I take any threats seriously, but if you don't tell me what you mean to the very letter you know I will find my loophole and use it. I'm still in the circus, I'm safe, and what we just saw in that room was enough to make me want to try and lighten my mood at least a little bit.'  
'Oh geez.' He pinched the bridge of his nose. 'They didn't kill our star witness, did they?'  
'No, he's still breathing, and ready to give up all the information he has, including the locale of all his equipment, once he's conscious again.'  
I saw his jaw unclench and he took half a step back. 'What did they do to make him pass out?'  
I looked at Micah who shifted a little beside me but was still the one to reply. 'I'm pretty sure he has a small phobia at the very least of being turned into a lycanthrope.'  
'And I want you to see if you can find out if he's a former or present student of Van Cleef's. I want to know who's taking the hits and if Van Cleef has thrown his oar in then I'm going to be extra pissed.'  
Edward nodded. 'I'll go see what I can do but I want the two of you to get back to the room, stay there and continue not being stupid.' He looked from Micah then addressed his last sentence directly to me. 'And if you think you've found another loophole run it by me first before you go off wandering again.'  
I resisted the urge to salute again and instead nodded. 'Claudia and Fredo are expecting you.' I nodded towards the door.  
'Go.' He nodded . 'I'll come to your room after I'm through, tell you what I got, if anything.'  
'Thanks, Edward.'  
And hand in hand we headed back to our room.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post torture smut, as you do!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to missekatte for pointing out I posted the same chapter twice! I wondered how long before I did that as I am currently still posting from my phone and am physically and mentally exhausted and in a lot of pain which is making me less vigilant! I will today list two chapters so we are where we ought to be! And Micah in the shower because yum!

The men had moved onto some adventure game and Nathaniel was now playing along too. They paused it as we came into the room and he stood and started towards us then stopped and wrinkled his nose.  
'You guys reek.'  
Micah and I shared a look, I even sniffed my hair, and I realised we had probably become accustomed to the smell on us.   
Jason turned around with a similar expression on his face. 'What kind of torture are you guys doing if you come back stinking like shit and blood? In fact, I don't want to know.'  
I groaned. 'Shower time. Did we hear from Nicky yet?'  
Nathaniel nodded. 'He's on his way here.'  
I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a tension I hadn't realised I was carrying release. 'That's great news. Nathaniel, could you tell Dev and Bram they might want to consider showering too?'  
'Sure. Did you find anything out?'  
'Other than he's scared of lycanthropes, nothing useful yet.' Micah replied, pulling me towards the door leading to the rest of the bedrooms and bathrooms. 'But Edward is going in now and the guy has agreed to give up what he knows.'  
'So who was the biggest, baddest scary person in the room?' Sin turned to us with a grin. With a small smile I cocked my head towards Micah who pulled a face at me and tugged on my hand, making me walk faster.   
'Anita, you're losing your touch!' Jason called.  
'Nah, I just didn't have the right tools for the job.' Micah laughed at my reply.  
He had already claimed the master bedroom from the massive suite for us both and Nathaniel and the bed was big enough if we needed it for extras but there were several other bedrooms so we knew everyone had space.  
'I didn't realise we stank so badly.' Micah said as I rested my Browning on the bedside table. I'd take it into the bathroom with us but for now there would do.  
'We got used to it and didn't realise it had seeped onto us.' I shrugged as I started taking off the wrist sheaths and then holster, all the while watching him unbraid his hair.  
'And with everyone but Peter in the next room having super olfactory senses means they could identify just what we smelt of.' He wrinkled his nose. 'We'll have to get our clothes straight to the laundry room. We don't want this permeating everything.'  
'True. We can bag them up and get someone to take them, seeing as we're pretty much locked up here indefinitely.'  
He shook his head, making his hair fall in soft waves around his shoulders, running his fingers through it before pulling his t-shirt off and dumping it on the floor by the door. My breath hitched in my throat, I couldn't help it, he just affected me so much.  
'You aren't getting very far.' He remarked, coming towards me and I realised I wasn't, I'd stopped what I was doing to stare at him, my belt half out of the loops on my jeans.  
'That's all your fault.' I smiled at him.  
'So hurry up and get undressed so we can get soapy together.' He unpopped his jeans and I lost focus again, too busy looking at what his hands were doing. He stopped short of pulling the jeans down and he now stood in front of me. 'This won't work if you don't actually do something.' He took my hand in his and finished sliding the belt out then pushed the holster off my shoulders and laid it on the nightstand.  
'Still your fault.' I reminded him but this time my voice was hushed, my breathing heavier.  
'I'm happy to take the blame for that reaction.' He smiled and started untucking my shirt. He worked the buttons and I let him, watching his face as he looked at the buttons, working bottom to top. It was a weird way of doing it, when I thought about it, but his hands had been on the bottom of the shirt anyway so I guess it wasn't too illogical really. From the top button his hands slid up the collar and slid it down my arms but rather than letting it drop he stopped just below my elbows and quickly balled the material up in his hands, pinning my arms to my side and pulling me against him hard enough that our skin meeting made a slapping sound. It made me gasp, suddenly having so much flesh contact but it was barely out of my mouth when his lips met mine in a kiss that was demanding and heavy. He ate at my lips, tasting me with his tongue and teeth, swallowing all the small noises that came from my throat and as I felt him straining against his jeans it made things tighten with a heat that had wetness pooling between my legs before I knew it.  
He controlled the kiss, as he controlled my body, still holding me motionless as he fed on me, his hair falling around our faces until we were virtually cloaked in dark curls. For Micah, I didn't fight the dominance, he knew what seeing him be ruthless did to me, although practical might have been the better word, and when he wrenched the shirt from my arms and his lips from mine we were both gasping for air as though we had been doing so much more.  
He reached behind me and unhooked my bra, letting it fall to the floor as his hands worked my button and zipper, then he dropped to his knees, pulling my jeans and underwear down as one to my calves before pushing me back to sit on the bed and removing everything, Nikes and socks first. As he stood he removed his own jeans and my mouth was dry at the sight of him before me, mostly erect and I couldn't stay where I was, I had to touch him.  
I pushed off the bed and took him in both hands, pinning everything between our bodies as his breath sucked sharply through his teeth, his eyes fluttering closed. Just the skin to skin contact before had been enough for us to have the power of our respective Nimir statuses sliding through the air but this was more, so much more. His eyes opened again as his hands found me, sliding up my arms to my shoulders then running one hand into my hair as the other slid to the curve of my back, pressing me further into him. He growled into my mouth as he gripped my hair but the kiss this time was gentler, barely a brush of our lips as though tentatively tasting one another, but it wasn't enough. I squeezed him, not hard, but enough to get his attention and the kiss was suddenly bruising, his lips hard against my own until I could feel our teeth through the skin and if he didn't pull back soon I was sure one of us would have a split lip before long. He did pull back though, all the way back, staggering away from me as he slid from my fingers and laughed shakily.  
'Shower.' He said simply and I nodded, much too quickly.  
We hit the en suite bathroom without touching one another again until he had the water in the large walk in shower warming up. Across its three enclosed sides two of them held jets, the longest back wall holding eight in all, four by two, one set either side of the controls, and the left wall held another four, leaving the right wall unadorned. Corner shelves on the left held our toiletries. I didn't even bother to look around the rest of the room, instead I approached Micah while his back was still turned and pressed myself against his back, biting across his shoulder as my hands slid under his arms and up his chest to his shoulders, pressing him further into my face. He groaned and used one hand to steady himself on the wall by the recessed shower, his other hand sliding down over my thigh and up again.  
'Enough, enough.' He murmured as I reached his neck and I pulled away, letting him turn to me. He took my face in his hands, cupping me gently and this time kissed me like I was some fragile thing that might break if he was too rough with me, but he turned me as he did so, putting my back to the shower and making me walk slowly inside until the water hit us. The multiple jets quickly had us soaked through and he kissed across my jaw, drinking water off my skin as my hands explored his now slick back and lower, fingers tracing over the tops of his buttocks as his kiss reached my neck then collarbone, both of which he took extra time over, knowing from experience more than the high keening noises I made, that it flat out did it for me. His tongue played over my pulse as he nipped and kissed my flesh, sucking it into his mouth hungrily as his hands slid over my body, one going low enough to part me and explore my moist folds, making my hands convulse against his flesh.  
His finger slid inside me easily as he kissed his way back to my face, pushing me into the corner as a second finger stretched me, then a third. I made a soft inarticulate noise against his lips as he stroked and teased me, making room for himself.  
He took back his hand and used the one on my thigh to raise my leg, taking a firm grip behind my knee and with the other he guided himself to my entrance, gently but firmly making his way inside me as I gasped and squirmed at the sensations it brought. I realised he had used something to lubricate himself, although I couldn't remember seeing a shower gel dispenser, I didn't care. With us being so similar in height this was just so perfect, our bodies matching each other almost limb for limb and as he reached the end of me he paused, breathing heavily against my cheek. I hadn't realised I'd closed my eyes until his voice fluttered across my cheek on his breath.  
'Look at me, Anita, look at me.' His voice was strained with the effort to stay still but I did as he asked, looking into his beautiful eyes from so close I almost had double vision. He touched my face with his free hand, just his fingertips playing over my skin but it was so much more, with our beasts curling through and around us, as though it were a deeper touch, deeper even than he was buried inside me. 'I love you, so much.'  
The sudden tenderness after so much heat threw me but I recovered, my reply automatic. 'I love you more.'  
'I love you most.' He rested his forehead against my temple, staying completely still other than a fine trembling that echoed through both our bodies.  
I started to say; 'I love you mostest.' but he drew out of me and shoved himself back in, until a burst of pleasurable pain shot through me and the words were lost in my scream. His hand went from my face, curving his arm around my waist and down so his hand held my butt, fingers convulsing against my flesh as he titled my pelvis, just a little, but the angle was deep enough, different enough that I fought to maintain the eye contact he had asked for. He pummelled me into the tile, kissing my face every few moments, licking my skin, almost frantically, as I felt heat beginning to rise like some called magic deep inside me, clawing for the surface like a swimmer without enough air. Micah cut our eye contact first and kissed down past my ear, burying his face in my neck as far back as he could so he was curled around my body, almost over my shoulder. And then he bit me.  
The orgasm hit me like a freight train, so suddenly I hadn't even realised I was so close or I'd have warned him, his bite having snatched away the crystalline edge I had been expecting to ride so suddenly I fell into an abyss of our beasts' powers, black spots in my eyes as my entire body radiated and spasmed with pleasure, my hips bucking against Micah as he continued his onslaught like he would never stop, thrusting so hard my one foot on the floor kept losing contact with the ground, the tiled edges scraping at my back but it didn't matter. As the orgasm began to fade I could already feel another one building as I clenched around him, a random tightening that had his breath stuttering against my neck despite his mouth still locked on the flesh under my hair. The biting was a leopard thing, I knew that, but I wasn't sure if it was because of my connection to the pard that it felt good or because I'd always enjoyed having time spent on my neck and shoulders, but I'd never had it done before Micah came into my life and now it was almost an essential part of our sex life.  
His mouth came off my skin with a sudden tug as his breath shakily sighed over my skin. 'I'm close.' He murmured, his lips now against the big pulse in my throat and he suddenly crammed as much of himself into me as he could in one sharp thrust, raising my foot completely off the ground and holding me there. The force of the blow, for that was what it felt like, snatched my control from me again and I fought not to claw at his back as my cries joined his, uncontrollable gasping screams and moans that seemed to go on longer than they should and he held my weight effortlessly, his muscles cording and shaking under my hands as I held on as though he were the only thing left in my world, and for now he was.  
As his shuddering subsided he lifted me away from the tile and, dropping down, knelt back on his heels, keeping me pressed against him as he remained inside me, my legs shifting to kneel either side of his thighs, our bodies still one solid line as the hot water continued to rain down on us.  
He curled his body around me, his head so far over my shoulder to almost be on my back, his arms keeping us pressed together as we both shook from the exertion and power, my own arms holding him equally as tightly, not wanting to let go, our breathing coming too fast, our hearts pounding against each others chests.  
Finally he moved, just a little, sitting back to look at me, his face one of wonder yet slack and satisfied, but also something else, something that wasn't supposed to be there. Worry. 'I'm sorry, I think I hurt you.'  
'I'm okay.' I assured him, knowing full well that when the endorphins wore off I would at least ache but I treated it with pride, I always had, and every hurt was a reminder of what we had done.  
'I mean here.' He ran his fingertips over the back of my neck and I flinched involuntarily when he touched it. He brought them back and they ran pink in the water running down his hand. 'I didn't realise I'd been so rough.'  
'I don't mind rough.' I reminded him.  
'But I don't like bloodletting without prior arrangement. It's not always what you want.'  
'I didn't mind.' I tried to reassure him. 'It was actually pretty fucking awesome.'  
He smiled at me but the worry was still there. 'Let me have a proper look at it.'  
I pushed up on my toes just enough that he slid out of me and with his hands to help my shaking form he settled me on the tiles on my butt between his thighs. He swept my wet hair aside and ran his fingertips over the wound but this time I was ready and didn't flinch despite the sharp pain it caused. What did make me flinch was when his tongue touched it and he carefully licked at it, cleaning and, I realised, as his power touched my neck, healing. I leant quickly away from him and turned to the surprise on his face.  
'By all means stop any bleeding, if it's really that bad, but leave the mark.' I reached my hand over my shoulder and rubbed it.  
'Really?'  
'Badge of honour,' I turned back around and he didn't stop me so the bleeding must have been done. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. 'From my Nimir-Raj.'  
His arms slid up my back and pressed our bodies together. 'What my Nimir-Ra wants, if I can grant it, it's hers.'  
'What I want is to just stay right here until we can stand enough to clean up. Then we can go see if we have anyone's ass to kill yet.'  
'Your wish is my command.' He put his hand on the back of my head and cradled me to him, our heads on each others shoulders, breath fluttering over one another's necks, letting the water soothe our overworked muscles.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A minor lesson in metaphysics for Peter and Edward is confused.  
> Small non canononical step sideways.

Everyone knew what we'd been doing, with the exception of Peter, maybe, but then he was a bright kid and we had been gone long enough for it to be suspicious, but it was Nathaniel who frowned at us, dropped his controller without asking for the game to be paused, and came towards us slowly. His face was curious, almost innocent, as though he were trying to work out if something were different. He stopped in front of us, his head tilted to one side, his lavender eyes slightly squinted but it was his nose that twitched, letting us know he could smell something.  
'Did we miss some smell?' I asked, thinking we hadn't done a good enough job even with the numerous shampooings we had done and multiple applications of shower gel.  
'No, you're both squeaky clean.' His voice was quiet and he moved his head just a fraction of an inch towards us, still sniffing.  
'Go ahead.' Micah permitted him and with a small smile Nathaniel walked around Micah on my left first, scenting the air around his face in a way that was almost sensual. Micah and I shared a glance and I shrugged. I wasn't sure what he was smelling either, but as he trailed his nose close to Micah's shoulders and murmured; 'Nope.' I realised it was my blood he could smell.  
'Oh.' I said long and drawn out as his nose reached my right shoulder and I reached up and swept my hair to the side for him.  
He pulled my shirt collar gently, another black one, and I bent my head so he could see properly, my eyes closed. I shivered when his tongue darted over it before kissing it softly. 'Well, now I'm jealous.' He laughed.  
'One of us will mark you later.' Micah's voice was smiling and I opened my eyes to see the face that went with it. He and Nathaniel were sharing a heated look that made me feel a blush start somewhere near my toes but movement in the rest of the room turned my attention from them. Nicky was here now, he had been seated at the table, facing the door, and I realised I had sensed him before coming into the room, as though I had just expected him to be there. He was no longer seated however, like Jason and Sin, he had slid to his knees and they were each crawling towards me like their respective beasts.  
'Guys, we have company, human company.' I reminded them with a glance at Peter, who was turned in his seat, watching what they were doing with quiet eyes, as thought studying the way they worked anatomically. I realised Edward would have taught him to absorb information where he could and this was a good opportunity, even if I didn't know what they were doing.  
'It's not really our fault.' Sin said huskily. 'You smell like...you smell like...'  
'Home.' Nathaniel said, still behind me.  
'Home.' Jason echoed him as Sin and Nicky nodded their agreement.  
'You both do.' Sin continued. 'I know Anita is like a comforter to us, but you, Micah, something is different, like you hold more Anita in you, like she's spread that feeling of home to the tigers.'  
'And wolves.' Jason came and sat at my feet and rested his cheek on my thigh and I was reminded of the first time we met.  
'Different how?' Micah asked. He was still holding my hand and he actually tugged it so our arms were in a solid straight line touching one another. 'Be more descriptive.'  
Nicky crawled behind us, making Nathaniel take a step back but he moved to my side once the bigger man was out of the way. 'It's just like Sin said. I'm Rex but I can smell you like you're some kind of...I don't know, more than me but that shouldn't be possible.'  
'It's calling you too?' I looked over my shoulder at Nicky who was on his knees now sniffing at our backs. 'It's calling every different animal in this room?'  
'We're all submissive to you, Anita, compared to you.' Jason said, just sitting looking up at me. 'And although we're different animals to Micah, we're all submissive to him too.' Nicky growled at him although he couldn't see him but Jason didn't move, he just continued. 'No offence meant, Nicky, but you're Anita's Bride and she is tied heavier to Micah than pretty much anyone, even Jean Claude with the marks, they made their pard a homely place, not just a home, but a magical home, where everyone is welcome, their powers are like, entwined, encompassing their pard like the comforter Sin mentioned. And because Anita has so many animals to call it calls to us all too. It makes sense that Micah, sharing her bond as he does, would eventually start to give off the same, I don't know, vibes as Anita, because they're metaphysically one entity.'  
I looked down, not believing how descriptive that was, how accurate it felt. I nodded. I'd known that was what I was, but having it spread to Micah was, indeed, new.  
'But what changed things for Micah?' Peter asked the question we were all wondering and it seemed strange coming from someone who didn't have the connection.  
'I don't know.' Micah frowned and the feel of Nicky must have been too strong at his back as he turned to face me, moving me as he did so we were in each others arms and could see everyone with a turn of our heads. 'We didn't do anything different in the shower, other than I accidentally marked Anita's shoulder, I didn't mean to be so rough.'  
'She doesn't mind rough.' Nicky sat back on his heels.  
'That was what I said.' I smiled down at him.  
'No, but I surprised myself. I'm better controlled than that.'  
'Maybe it was the control, you letting it go let something fall into place.' Nathaniel pressed himself against my back and I was suddenly the filling in one of my favourite sandwiches. Micah reached around me to include Nathaniel in our hug.  
'I didn't lose control over anything else, just the bite.'  
'Can I see it?' Sin asked  
'Me too.' Jason and Nicky asked as one and Peter shrugged.  
'I'm kinda curious as well.'  
I sighed. 'If I show you all the bite and let you have a sniff or whatever, will you let this drop? Assassins after me come first, we can worry about why Micah is suddenly tasty to you all another time.' Nathaniel chuckled against my back.  
'I'd agree to that.' Nicky said and there were affirmative murmurs all round, even from Peter. That made me glare at him.  
'You can look Peter, but there's no need for you to touch it. You can't smell things like they can.'  
He shrugged. 'I'm trying to understand what they are, what you are to them, but if you'd rather I just looked, that's fine.'  
'I'd rather.' I agreed and pushed back into Nathaniel so he gave me some space. I removed my Browning, slipped the shoulder holster off and was glad this time I'd gone with a v-necked t-shirt, it was easier than undoing all the buttons again. I put everything carefully on the bed and stood in my black lacy balcony bra, my back turned to them all, hair swept aside again.  
Nicky sniffed first, he was Rex after all, but he put his hands on my shoulders to hold me still, as though he expected me to move away. He pressed his nose hard against the wound until I gasped and sniffed deeply, his hair tickling my neck, and when he licked the wound it wasn't gentle, his tongue pressed hard enough I knew it wouldn't take much to break the skin again.  
'Enough, Nicky.' Micah said from my side and something in his voice was unhappy, made me look at him. He had his arms folded over his chest and was giving Nicky some serious eye contact. Nicky stopped, with his tongue against my skin, but he stopped. 'Back off before you distort what you're all after with your own scent. Everyone wants to smell Anita's wound, not you smeared all over it.'  
Nicky's tongue pulled back from me and he let me go. Micah looked down at Jason and nodded. Jason got to his feet and waited while the line of heat I knew was Nicky finally backed up. Jason didn't touch me any more than he needed to, resting one hand on my shoulder for balance as his breath softly fluttered over my skin, his tongue darting once over the wound before he drew back. He walked to Micah and gave him a small nod, but I couldn't see what was on his face.  
'Sin.' Micah directed him.  
Still on his knees I felt Sin move towards me across the floor and slide fluidly to his feet so close I could feel the heat from his skin, his aura, brush against mine, even though we weren't touching. He was so tall that to sniff my neck had to bend him almost in half but it was my waist he put his hands on to steady himself, making me shudder. He took a deep breath followed by several smaller ones, his nose darting over my skin in several places before he stepped back with a sigh.  
'Peter, if you must.' Micah said, looking at him where he was watching things carefully.  
'Thanks.' Peter sounded a little too eager and it made me want and not want to see his face. He stood behind me at a reasonable distance but I could feel he bent over me although not close enough that his breath touched my skin. 'It looks like a hickey, but with actual teeth imprints in the middle. They're deeper than the rest and the middle is raised, almost swollen.' I felt him stand up again. 'You sucked and clamped down but you didn't chew.'  
That had me spin my gaze from Micah to Peter, my eyes a little too wide. He shrugged, his face blank. 'Edward makes me study wound patterns, see what weapons do what damage, and that extends to teeth and claws. Would you mind if I smelled it? I won't touch, I just want to know if I can see any difference.'  
I gave him hard eyes. We'd had the 'no touchy' conversation yesterday and he seemed to have calmed down, as though his hormone levels had dropped, so I nodded. 'Just a sniff.'  
''Preciate it.' He said and he sounded more like Ted's apprentice than Edward's, just for a moment. His sniffed lightly at first, then inhaled deeply and when he spoke his voice was near my skin, sniffing between sentences. 'I can smell your shower gel, it's pretty sweet, but beneath it, I don't know. Maybe something earthy, like wet grass.'  
Of course that was when Edward walked in. We all looked at the door, at least everyone I could see did, I wasn't sure about Peter, but given how he was suddenly vibrating with nerves I'd say he knew just who it was who just walked in.  
'What the fuck is going on?' Edward slammed the door behind him.  
'Social experiment, kind of.' I replied and reached for my shirt.  
'Oh no, please, just carry on with whatever weird shit that is you're doing with my stepson!'  
'Edward,' Micah said quietly, 'go to Anita, look at her back then sniff it, as Peter was. Tell us what you see, what you smell.'  
'What?' Edward darted a look at him as Peter moved further from me, slowly.  
'You heard me.' Micah said patiently.  
Edward glared at him but Micah was back to looking at me again, his face very still and almost unemotional.  
Edward stood behind me and I knew the exact moment he stopped looking around the room and his eyes fell on my back. He went still. Finally his breath seemed to leave him in a rush and he stepped closer, his left hand on my left shoulder as his right hand gently probed the wound. He pressed hard with one finger but I refused to flinch but I did say; 'Ow.' to make the point he was being rough and the pressure gave as he moved his finger out of the wound but kept contact.  
'Tell us what you see.' Micah said simply.  
'It's a human bite. Or humanesque teeth anyway. No incisor marks. It's deep enough it must have bled but it's starting to scab over. Lots of broken capillaries, like the hickey from hell gone wrong.' I laughed slightly, my shoulders shrugging but he continued. 'Whoever did this, if they're a shifter, had a lot of control, spilling blood this close to the full moon, with it being Anita's cocktail on offer. When was this done?'  
'Today.' I replied simply.  
'It's not healing fast enough. It should be more healed given your abilities, but it's not so a shifter did it.'  
Micah nodded. 'Now see what you smell from it.'  
'Smell?'  
'Smell.'  
I didn't look back at Edward, although I wanted to, I'd have given anything to have seen his face but I made do with Micah's, still impassive and unreadable, but he gave me a small wink which reassured me that he knew what he was doing.  
'You just showered. I can smell your shampoo or something else fruity.' He straightened but his hand remained on my shoulder. It wasn't sexual with Edward, it was just contact. 'What else am I missing?'  
'Have one more try.' Micah suggested and I turned my head the other way to face Peter, careful not to let my hair fall into Edward's face.  
Peter was watching Edward carefully but his face was puzzled, as though he couldn't work out why Edward couldn't smell what he could, which was probably accurate. I knew why Edward couldn't, he was a complete null, but I suddenly wasn't so sure about Peter.  
'Nope, just soap.' Edward patted my shoulder and I took that as a sign I could redress which I began doing but sat on the bed so I could face everyone else while I did so. 'There's evidently something going on here I can't identify.'  
'I smell differently to how I did an hour ago.' Micah said without letting any inflection into his voice. 'Since I marked Anita's back, to be precise. And it seems to have unlocked something, but we don't know what. It's a good something, by all accounts, and all the were's wanted to check Anita's bite out. Peter asked if he could try too.'  
'And?' He turned to me. 'You thought this was a good idea?'  
I shrugged. 'There was no harm in it, Edward, it was almost like Peter was the control, being human. We agreed no touching, just looking, and when he asked to smell it I saw no harm in it.'  
'You asked to smell it?' Edward turned to Peter who nodded.  
'Everyone else seemed to get something from it. I needed to see if I could sense anything, smell anything from it.'  
'And could you?'  
I looked between them, wondering how Peter was going to play this; wide eyed and innocent or honestly. 'More than you could, apparently.' Honestly it was then.  
They looked at one another for a moment before Edward looked at me. 'What the hell does that mean?'  
'It means,' Micah replied for me, 'that Peter has some kind of gift or sensitivity, nothing more, but he could smell, what was it, Peter?'  
'Wet grass, or leaves. It was like being deep in a forest when you disturb the ground beneath your feet and its full of vegetation and dying things.'  
Edward's mouth fell open. 'What the fuck does that mean?'  
'It means he could smell the lukoi, or the pard.' I said. 'Or the lions or tigers I guess. But to me the damp always seems to go with the lukoi or pard. The lions and tigers tend to smell...dryer.'  
'More arid.' Micah agreed.  
'You could smell...' he looked at Peter who shrugged, 'and you just...' he turned to me, I looked at him expectantly as I pulled the straps of my holster back up, 'you think that...' he turned to Micah who unfolded his arms so he looked less angry, less tense, 'What the fuck does this mean?' He eventually yelled.  
'It means your apprentice probably has a psychic leg up on you.' I smiled at him. 'Don't panic, he's not been harmed while he was here, no one has touched him so it's not the precursor to him shifting, unless you've taken him on some seriously risky training missions lately and haven't told me. Psychic gifts cover a wide range of abilities and it could just be a response to were scents, that he can pick up on.'  
'You're sure you weren't just copying what the others said? You actually smelled those things?' Edward went to Peter and put a hand on his shoulder in a fatherly manner that was lost by the fact Peter was actually six foot to Edward's five-eight.  
'No one else mentioned it.' Peter said. 'It really did smell like when we've done those hikes for practice.'  
'Shit.' Edward replied and came and plonked on the bed next to me.  
'It's not anything to worry about.' I patted his thigh. 'We'll think about it when we have less pressing things going on, and if you want my help through my contacts to figure out what exactly Peter might have going on then I'll give it, you know that.'  
'Thanks.' Edward said absently.  
'Now's the part where you tell me about the information you got from the hitman.'  
'Right.' He seemed to mentally shake himself and the phone on the table began to ring.  
'I've got it.' Nathaniel said and moved off to answer it.  
'I found out that he was one of Van Cleef's, when he realised I was The Undertaker he gave me more information than I expected. Van Cleef isn't the money man but he did sanction him taking the hit which means you've pissed him off somehow, probably because he can't get to you, and especially because you're now untouchable to him. He wouldn't care if you lived or died, not enough to warrant sending people after you for nothing, but a hit that paid that well would suit him just fine. A couple of the guards are going to clear out the guys car and hotel room. Once I get his laptop I should be able to access more, see what I can do from there.'  
'Micah, it's for you.' Nathaniel called and Micah excused himself to take the call.  
'So how much for me to hire you to kill Van Cleef?' I asked casually, only half joking.  
He turned hard eyes on me. 'Don't ask me that, Anita.'  
'I'm only half serious.' I leant back on my hands on the bed. 'But he obviously didn't get the hint last time we tussled.'  
'That or his memory has numbed the fear in his eyes when you had that leopard jump on his desk.'  
'Bit of both, maybe.'  
'Maybe. So how did you end up with such a deep bite on your back from Snagglepuss?'  
'Snagglepuss?' Nicky snorted a laugh. 'Oh, I like that.' We both glared at him and he held up a hand but kept laughing softly to himself and muttered 'Snagglepuss' under his breath.  
'You going to answer my question?' Edward turned back to me and I just gave him raised eyebrows and a small smile. 'You know what, I don't need to know.'  
And he left it, just like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly the non cannon sidestep was Peter having some sort of sensitivity. I didn't mean to go so non cannon but it seemed to fit as I wrote it so maybe this will lead to othe things in this series? It sure gives me another opening! Also Micah smelling like home to everyone.  
> There's so much in this chapter I enjoyed writing. I loved making the bite more than just that, making all the weres react to it. Having Nicky told off by Micah just made our Nimir Ra all the hotter and then Edward's confusion, it was just great to write. And Nicky finding Snagglepuss hilarious; that's not going away any time soon!  
> I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The money person is revealed; Edward needs to choose his words more carefully; Peter gets a lesson; Edward makes a promise; Anita agrees to something stupid.

I don't know anyone who likes waiting. Waiting sucks. Waiting gave me time to think and my mind was imaginative enough to run so many theories through my head it was all but spinning by the time Jean Claude joined us. He made me sit down with him once he had sent word out that he wanted information and it was only when he mentioned he could feel my hunger than I realised I hadn't eaten since breakfast, nor fed the ardeur since the night before. Don't neglect your hungers, any of them. So food was brought for those of us who ate and the one of us who didn't sat and watched me instead, making more approving noises than I was as he tasted what I ate.  
Edward had commandeered one of the bedrooms for himself and Peter and had taken most of the equipment with him from the hitman's haul which he was now examining, except for the laptop which he left on the desk beside Micah's and his own, running some kind of diagnostic thing I didn't understand with a little box plugged into the side of it which he assured me would 'find all its secrets', whatever the hell that meant in computer terms.  
Micah heard back from a few of his contacts we had treaties with and only one had heard of the plot and on closer examination of the e-mails Micah had had to neglect thanks to the emergency, it showed they had tried to reach him earlier in the day. They confirmed word came from California but as they were closer, being in Nevada, they would see if they could put their noses to the ground, so to speak, or maybe literally, I wasn't sure, and get more information. The master of Carson City liked how things were running now and was only too happy to help too. It was the best response we had so far but we were still waiting. Richard had also put word out through his contacts but he too had had nothing concrete back.  
Jean Claude and Micah made me lay on the bed with them with my other four animals, having changed into shorts so they could all pet at my skin and help calm me when what I actually wanted was to go and beat the hell out of something; no, that wasn't true, I wanted to find whoever was behind this and beat the hell out of them, specifically. I doubted I would even get the chance to meet whoever was behind it, be it one person or a group, but eighteen million bucks was a lot of collateral to put up, so I was putting my money on it being either someone ancient or a larger group, someone with a serious amount of funds from group assets or something. Edward had already thought of that but it was still a long list of possibilities.  
It was almost midnight and we had been convinced to watch a movie to give me something else to concentrate on, when Edward suddenly yelled from the table; 'Got you, you motherfucker!'  
It was so loud and sudden we all jumped, even Jean Claude. Jason hit the pause button on the remote and we all turned to Edward.  
'Whatcha got?' I struggled out of the nest of arms and legs I had been snuggled in the midst of and crawled off the bottom of the bed.  
'Got the money man, or woman.'  
'Where? And if you say California I will punch you for being a dick.'  
He looked at me where I had sat beside him, his lip twitching. He had been about to do just that. Instead though, having had his bluff called, he said; 'San Jose.'  
'Fuck.' Micah came up beside where I had sat, putting his hands on my shoulders and, as I was sitting sideways on the chair, pulled me back against his naked chest. 'I think I know who you're going to say. I didn't even think of it until you said San Jose.'  
I looked up at him. 'You know who it is?'  
'I don't want to believe it, but, maybe.' He looked down at me. 'The pard leader in San Jose, she's leoparde lionne but she thinks of herself as more. She offered to be my Nimir Ra when I was there in November. She doesn't think someone of my status should have to share.'  
I put my hand on the one he had on my shoulder and he took it and squeezed it. 'I told her she didn't have it in her to be Nimir Ra and that it was an empty offer. She didn't actually make any threats but she did try and convince me. Really, really hard.'  
'What was her name?' Edward asked, his voice devoid of all emotion.  
Micah thought for second. 'Olivia. Olivia Atkins.'  
'Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.' I looked back as Edward turned his laptop around but I couldn't make sense of all the code on the screen. In the end he pointed to the bottom, where her name sat, looking at us, with the pard name beside it.   
'Throat Gougers Clan?' I read aloud. 'Gee and I thought Blooddrinkers and Maneaters was bad.'  
'She couldn't beat you, power wise.' Micah assured me. 'And I didn't think she was underhanded enough to do something like this. I guess I was wrong.'  
'Mon chat,' Jean Claude came and stood on the side of me that had the back of the chair to him, 'just like ma petite, you try and see the best in people. Sometimes there just is no 'best' for you to find.'  
'Do you have nicknames for all of them?' Edward frowned up at Jean Claude who just shrugged elegantly.  
'So what do we do?' I directed my gaze back to Edward, he was our guru, as I said earlier, but the look in his eyes as he turned back to me was...weird.  
He smiled, but his eyes were cold, his voice empty when he spoke. 'I kill you.'  
I took too long to process what he said, and in that time Micah had snatched me out of the chair and had me on my feet behind him as Jean Claude pinned Edward to the wall behind where he had sat by his throat, his feet dangling, the chair he had sat in now upturned.  
'Jesus fucking Christ,' Edward's voice was tight and strained as his hands grasped at Jean Claude's, 'I don't mean literally, put me the fuck down!'  
Jean Claude looked back at me and I nodded. He released Edward and he dropped, gasping, to the floor. He wheezed for a few moments and then got to his feet, keeping a hand on the wall. His eyes crossed the room to where Peter had been sitting, alone, in an armchair watching the movie with the rest of us, and he shook his head slowly. That made me turn and look at Peter. He had his gun pointed at Jean Claude, his feet in a balanced stance and he was still, so very still.  
Jean Claude tilted his head to one side as though wondering if Peter would actually pull the trigger but he lowered the gun, carefully, and I realised just how tight his finger had been on the trigger. You didn't pull like that unless you meant it and Jean Claude threatening his stepfather had been enough to send Peter to that fine line between death and life; pull the trigger or don't.  
'I don't mean actually kill her, don't any of you fucking know me by now?' Edward yelled, particularly at Jean Claude.  
He shrugged again. 'You make threats against Anita then I care not how well I know you, Monsieur Edward, know only that I will not risk her.'  
'Good to know.' He rubbed his throat and righted his chair. 'And shame on you, Snagglepuss.' He waved a finger at Micah who was still insisting on me staying behind him, one hand on my hip but I answered before Micah had the chance.  
'He was faster than I was, Edward, if you need to berate anyone here it's me for not reacting, for trusting you too much. They had me away and the threat neutralised before I even processed what you said. That was sloppy on my part, but you also know that means I trust you. Whatever weird ass scheme you're cooking up in that crazy head of yours means you want to fake my death, with you as the hitman. I can figure that out, now I'm not being dragged around the room like a doll, but next time maybe don't start your plan with you're going to kill me. Maybe say 'pretend to kill me' instead.'  
'Hindsight being what it is, next time I'll think more carefully. You can let her out again, Micah, seriously, I'm not going to hurt her.'  
I didn't think I'd ever heard Edward call him Micah before and it seemed weird not to hear him say Snagglepuss. Micah moved his hand from my hip but took my hand instead and led me back to the table, still behind him. 'Like Anita said, she trusts you, but if I hadn't moved her you'd have said I was being sloppy.'  
'And I'd have killed Jean Claude before he killed Edward.' Peter said, his gun now down but still bare in his hand.  
'No, Peter, you wouldn't.' Edward replied.  
'I would, I was in my place, Edward, I was ready to pull the trigger.'  
Edward and I shared a look. He might have been ready to try and kill Jean Claude but that wasn't what would have happened. Edward nodded to me, to let me take it. 'Peter, I believe you'd have pulled the trigger but you wouldn't have killed Jean Claude.' He frowned at me. I held my hand out. 'Let me have your gun and I'll show you.' He didn't even pause, he just gave me his weapon. He trusted me, like I trusted Edward; implicitly. He might not after this little display. I took the clip out and made sure there was nothing in the chamber. Once I was satisfied I gave him it back and went back to Micah's side. 'Okay. Hold your arm up, like you just were with the gun.' He did so I looked back at the bed. 'All you guys, I want you to stop Peter firing his gun without having to harm him. Show him that he wouldn't have killed Jean Claude, but it wouldn't be through not trying. Jean Claude,' I turned back to him, 'Show him why even if the were's weren't here you could have moved.' He nodded and Peter gave me wide eyes. 'It's a harmless demonstration, Peter, but it will make you realise that no one in this room is an easy kill.'  
His eyes went to Edward who nodded. 'It'll be part of your training. If I'd thought about it before I'd have included this in your program.'  
'On three?' I asked and everyone concurred. I didn't even bother with one and two. 'THREE!' I shouted and suddenly Jean Claude was no longer in the room and Peter was surrounded by Nathaniel, Nicky, Jason and Sin. Nicky had Peter's arm behind his back and the gun dropped to the floor with a thunk in the silence.  
'That's not fair, I thought you were going to count!' Peter called as Nicky let him go and he rubbed his wrist.  
'Life isn't fair.' Edward said as Jean Claude came back in from the corridor to stand by my side. 'But it is a valuable lesson I hope you take note of. We need to spend some more time here, get you training with the were's and watching them and the vamps actually move, if that's okay with you all?'  
I shrugged. It was fine with me, but Jean Claude and Micah might have issues with Death's progeny learning the ins and outs of our people with a mind to killing.   
'As we have a...truce of sorts, through your friendship with Anita,' Jean Claude said carefully, 'I do not deem it a problem as long as you are not using live rounds and on the proviso that if you ever come for anyone in our territory, be they vampire or were or other, that you inform us first.'  
'Sounds fair.' Edward nodded. 'Now about me not killing Anita...'  
We all went back to where we had been, but Micah and Jean Claude took seats either side of me. The last few minutes had made them a little jumpy. I couldn't blame them, there had been a time when Edward's threats had made me jumpy too. He was just too creative for a human.  
'So the way I see it, this woman, Olivia Atkins, wants you dead, and with me being, among other things, a hitman for hire, we have options. Door number one, I say I've killed you, make a video of you 'dead',' he made little quotation marks with his fingers, 'and send it to her, then Micah invites her here and we finish her off. Door number two, I take Anita to San Jose and make out she is in fact her own corpse. Then we kill her together.'  
'Door number one.' Micah and I said together.  
'Door number one offers us the chance to take her and make an example of her without risking you going to San Jose and having to fight your way out, however will she not find it suspicious that the second Anita is passed that Micah is shopping for a replacement?' Jean Claude offered.   
'Then I don't tell her Anita is dead.' Micah's fingers played over the back of my hand. 'I tell her she's missing and as one of the most powerful pard leader I have met besides Anita, which is bullshit by the way, I would like her to come and lend me her power to help find her, in return for, something.'  
'For being her long distance lover.' I suggested and I knew he'd thought it, he just hadn't wanted to say it.  
'That would probably work.' He sighed. 'I wish it wouldn't but it probably will.'  
We made plans, actual proactive plans for getting me fake dead. Edward tested me, to see how long I could play dead, breathe shallow enough that it wouldn't be seen on a video. I sucked at it apparently. Edward's solution scared me enough that we were arguing about it. Loudly.   
'You just can't pull it off! You twitch, not on purpose, but you do, and the harder you try, the worse it gets! This is the only way!'  
'Drugging me? Fucking drugging me? Really? You think I will really go for that?'  
He pinched the bridge of his nose. We were in the room he and Peter were sharing, screaming so loud that every one knew exactly what we were saying. 'It will be a controlled drug, which will shallow your breathing enough to pass you off as dead, it will make you look dead; waxy skin, sunken eyes, the works; and unless we get an actual doctor to check for a pulse, it is highly unlikely they would even find that, if they were in the same room, let alone watching a video feed from thousands of miles away! I have the antidote and even if I didn't it would wear off in twelve hours anyway! Maybe less with the way your body processes things! This is not a drug that will kill you!'  
I put my hand over my mouth to stop what I was about to say. He was being reasonable about it, I was being unreasonable, I knew I was. He had even offered to let everyone else be present, just out of camera shot when the call came. I trusted him, I trusted everyone here, what I didn't trust was the drug itself.  
I moved my hand just enough to speak. 'I don't want to be drugged, Edward.' I said quietly.  
'I can't think of any other way of doing this.' He replied, his voice equally as hushed. 'This will convince them that you're a corpse, not faking, and they won't be here, they aren't close enough to be a threat and it will take them hours to get here once Micah makes the call. And I won't let him make that call until you are absolutely positive you have recovered. This is our biggest gamble, that they don't buy it. Everything else is just circumstantial. The worst thing that could happen is that they just take the video and my word, pay me and then don't come when Micah calls. If that happens I'll hit them, and hard, while you stay hidden, still 'dead' and safe.' He came to me, actually reached out and touched my shoulder. 'This'll work, either way, this'll work. You're safe, the money is gone, no more threat.'  
I closed my eyes as I let my hand drop to my side, my head hanging as I shook it. I really didn't want to be drugged. I'd been drugged enough times to know that I didn't like it, I didn't like needles at the best of times, but deliberately drugging myself, being deliberately drugged...I sighed. 'I hate it, Edward, I hate the idea of being drugged.'  
'But...?' He prompted me.  
'No buts, I just hate the idea.' I looked up at him.  
'Honest there's a but, I can hear it in your voice.' He tried again.  
'No, no buts.' I tried again, frowning at him.  
He lifted his other hand, his fingers curled under my chin, tilting it towards his face. If it was anyone else I'd have thought he was going in for a kiss, but it was Edward, we were never likely to do that. I was still surprised though when his thumb rested on my chin and moved my bottom lip up and down as he spoke in a high pitched voice. 'But I'm going to do it anyway, Edward, because you're an evil genius and your plan rocks.'  
I swiped his hand off my face. 'Cut it out, I'm serious.'  
'So am I.' He smiled at me, just a little, just enough to let me know he was perhaps through yelling. 'I can't argue with you any more about this, Anita. Yelling at you isn't working, explaining it in such great detail that even a five year old could realise it was a good idea, isn't working, maybe humour will work.'  
'I'm not in a laughing mood.'  
He bent so his face was level with mine, eyes cold and serious. 'Then how about complete honesty? I promise I will not let anything, not one damn thing, you hear me? Not. One. Thing. Harm you. You and I might not have some mystical shit going on like you have with the rest of the men in your life but we have something real, something that only comes from having held one another's lives in our hands. You proved out there that you trusted me, even when I said I was going to kill you and your men went into a panic, you didn't believe it, not for a split second, because I meant what I said in New Mexico, about us being soulmates. It's you and me against the world, Anita. For all the men in your life, none of them understand what it's like to be one of us.'  
He had me there. For all the men in my life none of them knew what it was like to be an executioner, to kill monsters legally and still be the hero, to take a life that had threatened you and yours, kill or be killed. Okay, maybe that last one, but the rest, and all the other things I couldn't put into words, he was right.   
I sighed, it was long and heavy, my shoulders drooping as I blinked long and slow before setting my jaw. 'Alright.'  
'Atta girl.' He chucked my chin and I pushed his hand away, pouting.   
'Stop doing stuff to my chin, dammit.'  
'I have everything I need at my hotel, it'll all be okay, you'll see.'  
I didn't speak, I didn't trust my voice and a knock on the door made it so I didn't have to answer. It was Edward's room so I let him get it. Micah looked around him to see me and I saw him let out a breath. 'Sorry, you guys went so quiet so suddenly we were wondering if one of you had actually killed the other.'  
'Not yet, but she's agreed.' Edward looked back at me. 'Right?'  
'Right.' I said simply, going to the door and taking both Micah's hands in mine. 'Right.' I repeated. I didn't know what else to say so for once I stayed quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Silly little fact here. The first name of the money woman comes from a girl at my eldest's school who was teasing her relentlessly at the time I wrote this. My daughter liked me using her name as a way of revenge and she stood up to her and it stopped. She's twelve and has read the Anita graphic novels and we will often say when she needs a confidence boost; 'what woulda Anita do?'.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita doesn't sleep before something big.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry posting is so late today, travelled home from our holiday today and I ran out of data! Now home again so here is today's chapter!

We went over, and over the plan, then it was almost dawn and Jean Claude had to head to the room his coffin had been brought to, and we all went to bed. I was tired, just so tired, of arguing, worrying, torturing, keeping the peace, all of it, but could I sleep? Could I fuck. Nathaniel was absolutely out cold almost the moment my arm curled around his waist from behind and Micah was drifting in and out of sleep, no doubt unsettled because I still wasn't calm. I felt a sigh try and sneak out of my mouth but I forced myself to slow it down, so it was one long steady breath instead of the rush of air I really needed. Maybe I should get up and do...something, anything.  
'Still not asleep?' It was Micah, of course, his breath ruffling my hair, his voice barely conscious.  
'Not yet.' I smiled to myself as just the sound of his voice soothed me.  
'Relax.' He kissed my shoulder and began running his fingertips up and down my upper arm, the only part he could reach with me holding Nathaniel and it was comforting but not sleep inducing.  
'I am trying, really, and I am tired.'  
'You're worried.' His voice sounded more awake.  
'Of course I'm worried. Some stupid bitch wants you badly enough to try and kill me.' I buried my face against Nathaniel's hair, grumpy that I couldn't sleep and because of the truth in my words.  
He put his hand on my shoulder and coaxed me onto my back, away from Nathaniel. 'You remember how much of a problem Chimera was?' He could finally say his name without involuntarily shuddering. 'This is to save your life, Anita. What you did for me any my pard I would and will voluntarily risk my life for yours a million times over and then a million more. I love you, the most important people in my world are in this bed, and in my bed every night, and it's all thanks to you. Without you, I'd be nothing.'  
'You'd still be Nimir Raj.' I argued quietly, not wanting his words to sink in, wanting to hang onto the edge of anger that was running through me.   
He shook his head and I felt it rather than saw it, his eyes the only thing reflecting the light from the digital clock on the nightstand. 'No, without you, I'd be dead, or permanently in leopard form. But look at what I am because of you, with you! I'm leopard king, and you're my queen. We not only rule our pard but we have alliances with almost every pack, pard, pride and whatever else from one side of the States to the other. All because of you.' He leant in and kissed me, long and lingering. 'If you won't see what a difference you have made to me personally then look at the bigger picture, look at what an effect your life has had on Nathaniel, on Nicky, Sin, hell, even Jean Claude! You are the one factor that keeps us all together, that keeps everything working well as a unit. Without you there would be no furry coalition, Richard would have died a long time ago, his great ideals along with him, and I would never have known what true love is, never have realised that you are the reason I want to be better, the reason I want to wake up every morning and do something for the greater good.'  
'You also both suck at sleeping.' Nathaniel grumbled and rolled over to face us, slinging his arm over Micah's back so it pinned the smaller mans body to me and I sputtered a laugh.  
'I'm sorry, Nathaniel.' I apologised.  
'You can show me how sorry you are by stopping this crisis of confidence, shutting the fuck up and going to sleep.' That only made me laugh more, Nathaniel's sleepy tone didn't match the cuss word he had just spewed and it killed my anger completely. 'Shush.' He leant into my cheek and kissed it. 'Really, just shush, or we'll all be grumpy kitties tomorrow.'  
'I give, I'll try sleep.' I sighed.  
'I give you a heartfelt speech and Nathaniel just tells you to shut the fuck up and sleep and you do it?' Micah complained, laying half on top of me where Nathaniel still had his arm over us.  
'You give me heartfelt speeches more than he cusses at me.' I wrapped my arm around him, leant up and kissed him softly. 'I do appreciate the speech though.'  
'I'm gonna cuss some more if you don't shut up!' Nathaniel's harsh whisper quieted us and with an amused smile on my face, Nathaniel on his side facing me, his arm across Micah half pinning him to my body; Micah's head snuggled against my neck, his body a solid line against mine and his leg pressed between my thighs, I suddenly felt relaxed enough to drop into a deep but dreamless sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita doesn't like parts of the plan; Nathaniel is a good distraction; breakfast, coffee and drugs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this is another long chapter! I realised I had doubled up on a chapter number too so the fic is one chapter longer than originally stated (yay!) and I think I've fixed it now but if I repeat anything or seem to have missed one (really trying not to!) just let me know and I'll fix it!
> 
> Little WARNINGS here; claustrophobia, needles, smut. Is smut a warning at this point? Really? Okay, probably not. But anyway, crate smut. It'll all make sense.
> 
> Anita is drugged in this chapter and having had over twenty sedations/anaesthetics in recent years I used my experience from that to do the fading out part so I hope it comes across as realistic!
> 
> Also, crate smut! Did I mention that?

Edward wanted my 'death' scene to be realistic so he had taken one of my shirts to the firing range along with my Kevlar, put them on a mannequin and shot them several times so my shirt had bullet holes in the front. Once it was daubed with blood I would put the shirt on and then be drugged, but of course not until we knew we had the call coming. Edward had agreed for Dr Lillian to administer the drug and antidote which helped my nerves a little. She would also have a pulse rate monitor attached to me, at Micah's request, so that they could keep an eye on me from a safe distance. We just couldn't decide where to make the video. Edward suggested we go to his hotel but that meant leaving here and risking another hitman having a try at me. Edward was sure he could keep me safe and get me there undetected. I didn't doubt that. I just didn't like his idea.   
Everyone agreed it was virtually foolproof, but Micah and Jean Claude knew the reason I was reluctant. I had a small phobia of enclosed spaces and shoving me in a crate and loading me into a truck wasn't high on my priority list of things to try. My heart raced when it was suggested and now it was almost time my chest felt tight and I was fighting to keep my breathing under control. They were trying to make me comfortable; the crate was reasonably spacious, had quilts in the bottom and pillows, there was a small light and I would have my cellphone, but my heart had raced so much that in the end Micah suggested I share the crate with someone to help keep me calm. Nathaniel volunteered, like I knew he would. I gave him a grateful smile. Nicky and Sin has offered too but they were just too tall to make it plausible for them. Micah or Jason would have been easier but Nathaniel was good at keeping me calm and Micah would need to stay by the phone, just in case. Me and Jason in an enclosed space could go one of two ways, neither one I wanted to test.  
The crate would be taken out of the service entrance and 'Ted', or at least one of Edward's alter egos, would drive the truck to his hotel where Dev and Nicky would be waiting to unload it, I mean us, with Micah following separately. Edward would put word out that he had performed the hit and had evidence and would wait for whomever from the Throat Gougers Clan to contact him then I'd be drugged in time for the call. Micah would wait twelve hours before calling Olivia Atkins to ask for help. That should give her time to cancel the hit for all and sundry, meaning there would be no hitmen to worry about after a couple of days at the most. Then it was just a case of smuggling me back to the circus where we would wait for the despicable Ms Atkins to show. Jean Claude had something planned for her grande finale, so to speak, but hadn't shared details...yet. He'd tell me, eventually, just not now, not when I had other things on my mind. Like the crate in front of me that seemed to be getting smaller as I looked at it.  
I had been given Micah's t-shirt to wear so I held his scent against my skin and Nathaniel was only wearing jogging shorts. Edward insisted I wear less, that I would get hot and that wouldn't help my stress levels stay low, so I found myself in shorts too, but my clothes and every other weapon other than the wrist sheaths I was wearing would be waiting at the hotel.   
Micah tucked his hand under the back of his blue-green t-shirt I was wearing and touched his palm to my spine, his power reached to me, trying to take the tension out of my muscles but I was still uptight, still worried and to myself, I would admit, pretty scared.  
'You have nothing to worry about, you know that, right?'  
'I know that.' I said, my voice little more than a murmur. I was afraid if I spoke any louder my voice would quiver as much as the fine trembling running through my body.  
'But you still don't like it.' It was a statement this time, not a question.  
'Nope, still don't like it.' I repeated.  
He trailed his hand around my back as he slid himself between me and the crate, forcing my hand off the death grip I had had on the side of it. It put him so close to me we touched, his butt rested against the crate. His other hand joined his first against my skin and pressed me into him, his cheek resting on mine as my arms automatically slid around his back and under his own shirt and a shuddering sigh wracked my body.  
'I'll be waiting for you at the other side and Nathaniel will be with you the entire time.'  
'I know.' I was glad he couldn't see my face as I screwed my eyes up tight, trying to memorise the feel of him. This wouldn't kill me, I knew that for a fact, but it had the potential to either make or break my phobia. I could get out of that crate having been in it with Nathaniel ready to face the world or I could be a quivering wreck absolutely petrified. He knew I didn't like enclosed spaces, had known from almost the first time we met, well a few days later, but he didn't know all the background to it. What had started as a minor scuba accident had been acerbated over the years by waking up too many times against my will in coffins. The crate was bigger than a coffin, bigger even than the few double size coffins I had seen vamps use from time to time, wider and deeper, but it still brought back bad memories and the thought of having the lid closed on me made me want to throw up. I figured telling Micah part of my fear might help him understand, maybe saying it out loud would help me too.  
'I've woken up more than once in a coffin, and not by choice, and not with someone I would voluntarily choose to lay in a coffin with. It's not where the...' I couldn't say it for a moment but made myself, 'phobia started, but it hasn't helped matters.'  
He leant back from me and looked at me, his face pleasant but his eyes studied me. 'I never thought you'd share that information voluntarily. I knew there was a problem but I know how much you hate feeling...' He paused too long and I made my own suggestion; 'Weak?'  
'Out of your comfort zone.' He corrected me. 'I know you'll be fine, no matter how anxious you are, because you want to get in that box, not because you have to, but to see if you can, to prove to yourself that even though it's scary, you can do it.'  
'Stop it.' I whispered, not really meaning it.  
'Stop what?' He frowned at me.  
'Knowing what to say.'  
'Is it helping?'  
I thought about it and in the end nodded. 'I'm not sure if it's what you're saying or the fact you're this close to me, but I feel easier, kind of.'  
He pressed his lips to my cheek and spoke with them there. 'Maybe it's the fact you shared.'  
'Maybe it's the fact it's you.' I closed my eyes and just let him hold me.  
Edward came into the loading area and clapped his hands together loudly. 'Okay, let's get this show on the road.'  
It was early morning so it was just Edward, Peter, the weres and I in the loading area with the guards. Edward and Peter had both ditched their all black matching ensembles in favour of jeans and plaid shirts, looking more like delivery men than hitmen, down to Edward's cowboy boots and Peter's baseball cap. Without the cowboy hat it wasn't quite 'Ted' who looked back at me but it sure as hell wasn't Edward. Well, it was, but he was smiling, a lot, relaxed, as though he had the easy job.  
I sighed and stepped back and away from Micah's comforting touch as Nathaniel came up beside me, his hand playing lightly up my arm. It wasn't quite the rush of power I got with Micah but it was still the touch of my, our, pard, and it was Nathaniel. I loved him and it would help.  
'C'mon.' He put his arm around me and before I realised what he was going to do he had lifted me in his arms and put my bare feet down amongst the folds of the quilt in the crate. He easily stepped over the side himself and stood beside me as we looked at Micah.  
'I'll see you both there.' He leant in and took us in a three way hug, kissing first Nathaniel, then me. 'You guys have about forty five minutes if you really want to get distracted on the drive.' He whispered against our skin where he rested his head between ours and my eyes went wide as I realised what he meant.  
Nathaniel chuckled as Micah gave us a knowing look. I hadn't even thought that that might be the comfort they had been thinking about.  
Nathaniel put his arms around me from behind and made me sit down. I knew we had to lay down for the loading and unloading as it would just save us being jostled and would keep the weight even for those lifting but as we laid down, Nathaniel rearranging pillows and blankets so we were snug, it was still cold outside after all, and then came the bit I was dreading. I saw Nicky and Dev on opposite ends of the box, Dev at our feet, Nicky by our head and then the lid came into view. 'You'll be fine.' Nicky said and I knew he could feel how anxious I was. I nodded, too quickly, my breathing coming too fast. Nathaniel's face was suddenly in front of me, filling my field of vision.  
'Hey, look at me, Anita, just look at me, okay? Nothing else.' He put his palm against my cheek and forced me to face him. I knew my eyes were wide and as it darkened he clicked on the small portable lamp we had. I could still see his face clearly. 'Come on, breathe with me, listen to my breathing, match it.' He took slow deep breaths which I tried to copy but my heart was in my throat and I couldn't swallow past it. 'You're going to hyperventilate if you don't at least try. Please, Anita, please.' He kissed my lips softly as he spoke and his other hand slid under my shirt, curving up my back, pressing his entire forearm and hand against my skin. That made me raise my back away from his arm, pressing me to him, and suck in a deep breath, something I hadn't been able to do for the last few minutes. 'Just concentrate on me, okay?' Nathaniel whispered against my lips, swiping his tongue across them as the first nail struck through the lid into the box.  
I closed my eyes, tried not to think of the noise. They were using less nails than normally would hold a lid on a crate this size but it was still hammering, over and over, making it blatantly clear what they were doing, there was no disguising it. My breathing hitched as my chest tightened but Nathaniel was there. He pulled us both onto our sides facing one another and he kissed me, kissed me for all he was worth with lips and tongue and teeth and more force than I had been expecting. He crushed me to him, his hand splayed across my back, his other now tangled in my hair. Without realising I had one hand down the back of his shorts and the other around his shoulders, grazing my nails over his smooth skin which made him groan into the kiss as he ground his hips against me and I could feel he was happy to be there. What made us break from the kiss was the sudden double bang on the side of the crate.  
'No need to ask if you're okay in there, then?' Edward's voice came from outside and it made me angry that he made it so obvious I had needed such a distraction.  
'Fuck you!' I yelled.  
'She's fine, load her up!'  
The box shifted and Nathaniel held me close to him as we rocked around but not too much, they were being careful. I felt the air chill and Nathaniel rubbed me as though to warm me but with the comforters we should be fine. I heard, rather than felt the crate being strapped to the inside of the truck so we wouldn't slide around and finally I heard the shutter door slam shut and the engine start.  
'You okay?' Nathaniel asked quietly.  
'Acclimatising, I think.' I replied.  
'It's not so bad.' He smiled at me.  
'I'm glad you're with me.'  
'Me too. I get to feel like the strong one for a change.' He grinned. I frowned at him and his grin faded. 'Don't look like that, Anita, I only meant I get to be your hero for once, I get to help you.'  
'You help me all the time.' I argued.  
'I don't mean with housework.'  
'Neither do I.'  
'So tell me what I help with while we're laying here.'  
'I thought you wanted to do other things?' I raised an eyebrow at him.  
'That too, but start by telling me how I help you.'  
I sighed and rested my forehead against his cheek for a moment. I could humour him. 'I love going to sleep with you and waking up with you. You make me feel...wanted and loved. I started out wanting to keep you safe but you now do that for me. I feel safe with you because I know I can count on you, because I know you're there for me, no matter what stupid shit I have going on, you're always there.'  
'Keep going.' He said, kissing his way down my throat.  
'You made my house a home and when I've had a hard day, when the bad dreams, oh geez, Nathaniel...' He nipped at the skin on my collarbone and I couldn't concentrate.  
'When the bad dreams what?' He murmured against my skin.  
'When the bad dreams...when the bad dreams...' I repeated, trying to find my train of thought only to discover it was so badly derailed I wasn't sure where it was going.  
His lips were hot on my flesh and he pushed me onto my back then pushed the t-shirt up to trail wet kisses around my rib cage and up to my bra. He pulled us further down the crate, our legs needing to bend to accommodate the move which I soon learned was to give him space to pull off my t-shirt. His lips fell on the mound of my breasts immediately, kissing over them as he pulled down first one cup then the other, spilling my right breast into his waiting mouth. He sucked as much into him as he could then slid back to tease my nipple with his teeth and tongue, making it pucker until almost painful as his teeth grazed over it.  
'Nathaniel, should we be...' I gasped, looking down at him in the dim light and he rolled his eyes up to look at me through his lashes and there was something so intimate in the way he did it that it made me writhe against him and groan.  
'Tell me to stop and I'll stop.' He whispered against my wet skin.  
I swallowed as I realised I wasn't afraid, this small space had become our private world, and intimate space filled with just the two of us. 'Don't stop.' I whispered and he grinned at me, moving up my body and kissing me fully.  
I ran my hands up his back as he pressed his hips into me. Through the light shorts we wore I knew he didn't have any underwear on and it did nothing for my sanity to think of the small amount of fabric that separated us. As though he read my mind his hands found the waistband of my shorts as mine did his and I moved so he could kneel between my legs and remove first the shorts and then the lacy underwear I had on. He removed his own shorts, carefully freeing himself of their confines and, kicking them to the side, laid back against me, rubbing over me in a way that had me warm and wet for him. I bent my knees which dropped him to a more intimate angle without him moving and he lowered his face to mine in a one handed push up, his other hand guiding himself into me. He brushed my lips with his gently as he edged his way inside me, such a slow glide that he barely moved. He seemed to take longer than it should have for him to fill me to the hilt and I was writhing uncontrollably by the time he did, moaning incoherent noises against his lips.   
He curved his arms around me so I was wrapped fully in his embrace. 'Can I be your hero just this once?' He whispered into my mouth.  
'You're my hero every day, Nathaniel.' I whispered back, my eyes serious despite the intimacy of the moment and I meant every word. When Nathaniel entered into my life he saved a part of me I hadn't realised needed saving, a part of me that I hadn't even known existed. 'You have been since the day I met you.'  
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against mine, sighing against my cheek. 'We were both saved that day.' He said it so quietly it wasn't even a whisper, just a breath of words against my skin and he chose that moment to back out of me then rapidly back inside, hard and fast.  
I gasped at the sudden intensity of it and wrapped my legs around him as his stroke increased to a point where he hit every part of me with his low then high glide that had my breath shuddering before I knew it. He held my upper body still as his lower pummelled into me, my hands clawing at his back in a way that I knew he would appreciate both now and later, but I was still surprised when he spoke again, asked me the question I should have known he would ask.  
'Mark me, please, Anita, mark me like Micah did you, please.' His voice was every bit as imploring as his words and I couldn't deny him, he was my hero after all.  
I nodded, just enough that I knew when he felt it, his breath leaving him in a rush just at the thought of what was to come and I had to move my face closer to him but the inches he was taller than me made it easier and I realised he had to still be holding back to enable us to keep our faces together. I slid my arm up around his shoulder and first nipped at the juncture where his neck met his shoulder and his pace slowed, giving me the perfect opportunity to take his flesh into my mouth. He groaned, throwing his head back, stretching the skin between my teeth until it split and the taste of copper pennies rained over my tongue. He slammed himself into me as his blood flowed, increased his pace to a point where I didn't think I could hold on without doing more damage and I pulled my mouth away with a gasp. Heat was pooling inside me, waiting to burst, waiting for my body to let go and fall over that fine line I was riding. He pulled me tighter against him with his hand around my waist and although it shortened his movement it intensified it, making the pleasurable pain burst over me, my back bowing as I screamed his name in a rush of pure ecstasy. He followed me a few strokes later, shoving deep into me as he spilled inside me, his cries loud in the close confines of the box. He held himself tight inside me as the last of his shuddering subsided and he collapsed on top of me.  
'My hero.' I panted, kissing his cheek.  
He slid out of me before laughing, rolling onto his side. 'You're not scared any more?'  
'Scared is definitely not what I'm feeling.' I assured him. 'And it's all thanks to you.'  
We laid in the dimly lit silence for a few minutes, listening to our heartbeats coming down and a couple of thoughts struck me at once. 'You know, we have no way of cleaning up.'  
'Thought of that.' He rolled onto his back and pulled a travel pack of wipes out of his shorts pocket where they had been crumpled beside us.  
'Really? You knew this was how it was going to go?' I looked at him in surprise.  
'I'd hoped. Micah said to distract you any way I could and we figured this normally distracts you completely.' He shrugged.  
'Well, it worked.' I kissed him. 'Who else was in on this plot?'  
'No one, not really, unless they overheard. Does it matter?' He curled his arm around me again, pulling me tight against his side.  
'Not really, but even Edward and Peter are going to know just what this box smells of when they open it.'  
He did something unexpected then. He laughed. It was a pure, unadulterated sound I had once thought I would never hear from Nathaniel's lips and it was so contagious I laughed too.  
'Why is that so funny?' I asked.  
'Because they knew what we were doing before we even got put in the truck. They might even have heard us, because you aren't quiet.' I blushed, I couldn't help it. That hadn't even crossed my mind. He kissed my cheek solidly. 'I love that after all you've seen, all you've been through, I can make you blush.'  
'No way you could see that in this light.' I frowned at him.  
'I didn't need to see it, I can smell the blood rushing to your cheeks. You smell beautiful.'  
'I smell funky.' I disagreed.  
'We can get cleaned up and be decent again before we reach our destination.'  
We did just that. My phone had a GPS app on it, apparently, that Nathaniel knew how to use and Edward had even put our destination into it so once we were decent, or at least clean and dressed, we sat against the side of the box with our knees bent, watching the little blip on the screen tracking our progress through the familiar streets of St Louis. Someone had had the forethought to put a couple of bottles of water in the corner of the crate under the quilts and we were grateful for the rehydration but I would really need some food when we reached the hotel. About a mile from our destination I received a message from Edward's cell phone, I hoped he had dictated to Peter rather than take his attention off the wheel, warning us; 'I hope you're decent, we're almost there.'  
I messaged back; 'Asshole.' and left it at that.  
The truck slowed down and ambled along a little before finally coming to a stop. I knew Edward preferred upmarket hotels for the security they provided when travelling as Ted or with Donna and Becca, but when he was alone, hunting, he always seemed to go for nondescript motels. From the map it seemed like we were at the latter which I was a little disappointed about as it meant the room service menu might not be great, if it existed at all. When had I become so obsessed with food? When it wasn't just my life that depended on my eating any more, I guess.  
We heard the shutter door roll up and laid back down ready to be moved. Of course the first thing we heard was Nicky say; 'Smells like sex in here!'  
Nathaniel giggled and I had to put my hand over his mouth. Nope, there were not two people hiding in this crate. What legal reason would there be for that?   
The crate was dragged to the edge of the truck and then lifted down...and left. I gave Nathaniel a curious look.  
He shrugged and put his lips next to my ear. 'I can hear them talking but not what exactly.'  
Then my phone started vibrating in my hand as it was on silent and a look at the display showed Edward's number. I put the phone to my ear but didn't say anything.  
'So hey, just a quick call, any way you can show us which end your feet are because we can't fit this thing through the door.'  
'What the fuck do you mean, where our feet are?' I whispered into the phone.  
'I mean we want to tip the crate into the doorway and open it but we don't want to tip you onto your heads.'  
I sighed. 'Have Nicky crouch by one end and I'll put my hand to the side. He'll know which end it is. That'll be our head end.'  
'Good thinking, Batman.' He hung up.  
'Fucking geniuses.' I mumbled. I knew Nathaniel had heard every word so there was no need to repeat myself, I just put my hand above my head and pressed on the wood, concentrating on my connection to Nicky. I felt his hand not far from mine and a moment later it was as though the wood wasn't even there. I heard him say; 'This is the head end.' And the crate was moved again.  
'Brace yourselves.' Edward said and I knew it was for our benefit, not the were's moving the crate. The head end lifted and we slid until our feet hit the bottom end and Nathaniel put his hand out to steady us as we rocked forward then Nicky's clawed hand pierced the side of the crate. It actually made me jump and swallow a small 'yip' but I guess if he had the tools why bother with a crowbar? He pulled enough of the lid off that we could step through the gap and we were in a dimly lit cheap motel room, with Nicky grinning stupidly at us.  
'What?' I frowned at him.  
'You guys had fun.'  
'You know we did. Why mention it again?' I felt a blush course through me.  
'Because you're wearing each others shorts.'  
We looked down at ourselves then each other and realised our mistake. 'Well, shit.' I mumbled and dragged Nathaniel further into the room to find the bathroom so we could swap. When we came back out the crate was gone and the door shut, lights were on and Edward was booting up his laptop.  
'Okay, I'm going to make contact and tell them it's done and wait for them to come back to us.' He turned in his seat. 'We're all going to need to sleep in shifts because we aren't taking extra rooms, it's too risky.'  
'I'm good for another few hours.' Nicky said and Dev concurred. They had only got up a few hours ago, being on the grave shift so to speak.  
I looked at the two double beds. 'You and Peter in one, Micah, Nathaniel and me in the other?' I suggested.  
'No funny business.' He pointed a finger at me and I held my hands up.   
'You get me breakfast and I promise I will do nothing but snuggle down and sleep.'  
'Micah's bringing breakfast, that's why he's not here yet.'  
'Great.' I nodded and sat on the bed nearest the door. Edward glared at me. 'What?'  
'You need to ask?' He raised an eyebrow at me and I realised what he was getting at.   
'Gee, I'm just sitting on it, Edward. I will sleep in the bed furthest from the door.' I rolled my eyes.  
'You will move to the bed furthest from the door now so you're not in line of sight when the door next opens.'  
'Gah!' I got up anyway and went to the bed opposite the window. 'Happy?'  
'Happier. I won't be happy until this bounty is gone and you're safe again.' He clicked a few icons.  
'You don't want in on killing her? Providing she will come when Micah calls.' I frowned and he looked back from his laptop again.  
'Don't you have some kind of pard etiquette or something to perform? Some ritual?'  
'Maybe.' I shrugged. 'I guess I'm just so used to you finishing the job.'  
'I trust you and yours to finish this one, and if you finish it, and Jean Claude has his way, it'll be so flashy it will scare the shit out of anyone thinking about trying it again.'He had a point.   
'You're welcome to be there, if you want.'   
'If you want me there I'll be there.'  
'I'd like to be there.' Peter spoke for the first time from where he stood by the window, watching outside carefully.  
'You want to go to a were execution? Are you feeling okay?' Edward looked at him.  
'You keep saying I need to learn about them. When am I likely to get another opportunity like this?' He didn't even turn from his post, just spoke matter of factly.  
Edward shook his head. 'We'll see what the time frame is but we don't have anywhere to be.'  
'Great.' Peter replied.  
We sat around for a while and Edward allowed Nathaniel to put the news on the TV. Dev was patrolling outside while Nicky stood by the door. Eventually there were two knocks on the door. Nicky put his nose against it and stepped back with his hand on the knob. 'It's Micah.' And let him in.  
'Breakfast. Sorry I was so long.' He was carrying large take out bags and put them on the opposite side of the table to where Edward sat. 'I bought meat combo breakfasts, two each.'  
'Two each?' Peter said in disbelief.  
'We eat a lot of protein.' Micah replied. 'Anything you don't eat, especially meat, offer it to Anita first, she needs it to keep the ardeur stated.'  
'Feed all your hungers.' I muttered in a stupid, childish voice but I was a little tired of being reminded.  
'Yes, feed all your hungers.' Micah came towards me smiling with a takeaway tray in his hand and plastic cutlery. 'If you complain I'll tell Dev to leave all the coffees in the car.'  
'I knew there was one more reason I loved you.' I got off the bed and put my arms around him instead of taking the food and kissed him soundly.  
'Next time I pick up the coffees.' Nicky said.  
I let Micah go and took the takeaway container, sitting back against the headboard of the bed with it in my lap. I heard Nathaniel call; 'Ketchup!' and looked up in time to catch the sachet left handed.   
'Thanks.'  
Dev brought the coffees, super grandes, with a bag full of cream and sugar. Nathaniel made mine up without me having to ask and put it on the nightstand beside me before bringing his food and sitting on the bottom of the bed, leaving space beside me for Micah. We ate, we waited and Edward eventually told us to get some sleep. We had all had overnight bags in Micah's car so once we changed the three of us hit the bed while Peter took his turn sleeping in the other bed first as Edward kept a watch on his laptop.  
We had had three hours when my cell phone started to ring. I crawled up through layers of sleep but before I got all the way there I heard Edward answer it, no that wasn't right, I heard Ted answer it.  
'Detective Zebrowski, I was just about to call y'all.'  
I sat up, quickly, despite the extra arms and legs over my body and gave Ted wide eyes. He waved me away with his hand as I started trying to get out of the tangle of limbs and covers.  
'Ted Forrester. Marshall Forrester. Still not used to that part.' His good ole boy voice didn't match the fact he was now in his normal Edward assassin gear. He paused as Zebrowski spoke. 'Well, no, that's what I was going to call you about, Detective.' He came over and shook Micah, making sure he was awake, which he was. 'I'm with Micah Callahan. We can't find Anita.'  
Micah sat up and swung his legs out of the bed. He and Nathaniel had slept in shorts out of politeness. 'I'm here, Ted. Is that Zebrowski?' He made his voice sound more worried than I'd have been able to if caught out.  
'It is. Yes, Detective, he's here.' He passed my phone over to Micah.  
'Hey.' Micah sounded tired, I knew he was only faking it but it was so realistic I had the urge to go and comfort him. Nathaniel must have realised this and he sat up and moved behind me, putting his legs either side of mine and his arms around my body to keep me in place. 'I don't know. She left work and no one has heard from her since. We found her car in a parking lot with her cell phone still inside...uh huh...I thought it was standard procedure to wait twenty-four hours before reporting someone missing or I'd have called sooner...yeah, I guess her being a fed makes a difference.' He sighed. '...I'll come down and make a report...thanks, Zebrowski, I'll let you know.' He hung up.  
'I thought I was still on call, that you'd come with me if the cops called, Ted.' I said as Nathaniel let me go and Micah put my phone on the table.  
'I was, when we were just hiding, you're now officially missing.'   
I slid off the bed. 'And you knew about this?' I frowned at Micah.  
'We discussed it. If you're missing, you're gone.' He shrugged. 'We have to pull this off.' He held his hand out to me but I refused to take it, made sure we kept some distance between us.  
'What if it's a case? I can't just dessert them.'  
'They'll have to cope. You staying alive is more important.  
I hugged my arms around myself. 'No, I should call Zebrowski back.' I took a step towards the table but both Nathaniel and Micah were there, faster than my eye could follow, one in front and one behind me, their hands on my arms, their touch taking the anger from me, anger that wasn't really because of the way Edward and Micah had discussed it without me but because I hadn't realised it myself.  
'You call no one.' Micah said, pressing himself against my front and his cheek to mine. 'You're missing, they will manage for a couple of days without you.'  
'Stop making me not angry.' My words were halfhearted. Being angry wasn't constructive, I knew that, but I knew what to do with it.  
'You don't need to be angry about this.' Nathaniel's voice came muffled by my hair from behind my ear.  
'I should be.' I argued as the fight left me.  
'It's only because you know what to do with anger when you can't do anything else.' Micah pointed out and I nodded against him. It was true. I put one arm around him and another behind me around Nathaniel.  
'Go back to sleep, I'll wake you if anything else comes up.' Edward said without looking up from his laptop.  
'And I have to go make a missing persons report.' Micah leant back from me then kissed me quickly. 'Get some rest while you can.'  
I knew I wasn't going to win this one so I just nodded and when he let me go I let Nathaniel take me back to the bed.   
I hated lying to the cops, kind of, I mean if it was necessary, but I wasn't missing, I could be needed on a case. It didn't seem right to lie to them about this but what else was I going to do? Tell them the truth and let them realise Ted is actually a monster hitman? No, that would complicate things unnecessarily. I trusted Edward and I trusted Micah, this had to be the right thing to do but if I was missing it would hit the press, eventually get back to Dad...I sighed and let Nathaniel curl himself around me, my head on his chest. Eventually I slept again but it was too light, my body jumping with dreams I couldn't remember.  
I finally gave up and found it was afternoon. I'd slept longer than I thought but didn't feel much better for it.  
'Still nothing?' I asked Edward, hugging the coffee he had sent Peter to get once I woke. I was showered, armed and dressed and seated opposite him at the table.  
'Not yet. It's feasible they won't get word straight away, with it being through so many fronts, but as soon as they do I bet they get back to me pretty...' his phone started ringing on the table and he raised an eyebrow at me. 'Speak of the devil, maybe?'  
He picked it up and put it to his ear. 'Yes?' He listened for a moment then nodded to me. 'I'm not at the location right now but give me an hour and call me back. I'll have the video call set up.' He gave me a thumbs up. 'Right.' He hung up. 'That's it, we have an hour. Get your rat-doctor here and we'll be ready.'  
I called Lillian from the landline in case the cops were monitoring activity on mine and Micah came back while I was on the phone. Edward spoke to him I assumed to tell him what was happening. I gave Lillian the address and she would be here within half an hour. All I had to do was get into 'costume' so to speak.  
Edward wanted realism so he had some blood in the mini fridge. I know, gross, but it was realism he wanted. I'd argued the blood would look fresh compared to how long I was supposed to have been dead but he said as it was going under my shirt and I was being spattered with it it would only be small spots, plus the video quality and poor lighting would make it hard to tell. I put the shirt on with the bullet holes in and Edward made small pen marks on my skin through the holes so he knew where to concentrate the blood then it was into the bathroom where he could paint me with it. It was cold and unpleasant and when he flicked it on me once the shirt was on I was not happy, flinching with each flick of blood he threw at me. It was necessary but I could now smell the blood on myself which made it even worse.   
Dr Lillian arrived and was discussing the drugs with Edward. He knew far too much about it for my liking but I guess that was to our advantage. She fitted a heart rate monitor under the bottom of my bra and she had a handheld device that flashed silently with each too fast beat of my heart. I was to get into the tub and then I would be given the drug. Once I was out Edward would position me to look, well, dead, then initialise the video call. Everyone else would wait in the other room. Once they were convinced and the video cut I would have the antidote administered and be taken from the tub and made comfortable until I came around.  
Nathaniel had been sweet enough to dry the tub from all our showers and helped me over the side. I hadn't thought to kiss any of the men before I got covered in blood and now I wasn't allowed as I had drips of it on my lips and I wasn't allowed to touch anything. I sat down and laid back before offering my arm out of the tub. Lillian inserted the needle in the crook of my left elbow and it was only seconds before my body started to feel heavy.  
'We'll be right next door.' She patted my hand and went through into the other room, which left me with Edward.   
He came and crouched beside the tub as I felt my eyes getting heavy, my heart rate slowing. 'You ever tried this drug?' I asked as my mouth began to get dry, my tongue too thick.  
'Yeah, part of training. I know what you're going through.' He smiled at me.  
'I don't...don't like it.' My voice sounded like I was drunk, or too tired, and I tried to swallow but found it impossible, my throat didn't want to work.  
'It'll be over with before you know it. Trust me.'  
'I do trust you.' My words were barely above a whisper now. 'But you're still...a dick.'  
He laughed and that was the last thing I saw as my eyes closed, Edward's smiling face, and the world changed from colour to grey and finally black.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftereffects of the drug are many, and scary, and not just for Anita.

I was drowning, not in water, but in blackness. My every sense was full of it, my ears rang where it pierced my eardrums, my nose was blocked, my throat too, and it pressed around me like the air was thicker than it should have been. I was drowning in the sheer atmosphere, my limbs wouldn't work and even if they did I couldn't work out which way was out, if there was an out.  
Then I heard a sound, a sound so soft I was sure it was in my head, my body giving me a memory of what it was like. My name, from the lips of someone who loved me. The thought made my chest tight. I would never hear that voice again, as long as the blackness remained. I heard it again. The blackness edged away from my legs and was replaced by warm skin, my legs were almost surrounded in a tangle of hot flesh but it felt so much better than the cold, dank, darkness that began to lift off my body like blankets being drawn away slowly. Hips pressed against me on both sides, I became vaguely aware of the fact I was naked as the darkness alleviated, allowing me to feel more flesh, all but surrounding me. My arms were still heavy, one was pinned under me, the other limp over my stomach, being pressed into me by some very firm muscles. I smelled vanilla and below it the musty scent of leopard and again, my name, and other words, still as yet indistinguishable. A chest pressed against my naked breasts, another at my back, hands smoothed down my torso and arm, stroking, and breath rustled my hair on my temple and on the back of my head.  
'And we will have fresh coffee, lots of fresh coffee, waiting when you wake up.' Micah. I knew that voice, loved that voice. I could feel the words as though they were tickling across my face on his breath.  
'But you need to wake up to get the coffee, Anita.' Nathaniel, another one I loved. His voice came closer to my ear, behind me. I wanted to turn and see his beautiful lavender eyes looking at me, and back to Micah's chartreuse sparklers. I tried, but my body didn't respond. I could feel but I was so weak, and I could hear...but could I talk?  
My eyes didn't want to open but I could try and speak, anything to let them to know I was here. I tried. Nothing happened, my voice box, vocal chords didn't respond, my lips didn't move.  
'Her pulse rate is coming up.' I heard another voice, female, but not Dr Lillian.  
'Her mouth moved.' Micah's voice again, closer to my face this time and part of me realised his hair must be down as something tickled my nose.  
'It's working.' Nathaniel sounded relieved.  
Lips brushed mine softly and I felt my own twitch in response, not a movement, not even deliberately, but they responded, it was automatic, as though they knew what to do without me telling them. The lips moved from mine and I tried my eyes again and managed to get a small slit of light through that was shaded by my lashes. They closed again.  
'Come on, Anita, you're nearly there.' Micah whispered against my skin and I tried, really tried, and I pushed the last of the blackness away. I groaned. I felt too heavy still, I blinked my eyes partway open a few times but they still wanted to close; they felt gritty and I realised it felt like I was hungover. I'd never been a drinker, but I was at least grateful I had no headache.  
'The fuck is that shit?' I mumbled, remembering the drug Edward had given me.  
'Yeah, she’s fine.' Edward's voice came from somewhere near my feet and I managed to raise my hand enough to give him the finger.  
Micah kissed me again and I forced my eyes open so I could see him, just to make sure he was real. 'Am I dead?' I mumbled, my voice coming scratchy and tight.  
'No, you're not dead.' He smiled at me. 'I mean you are dead as far as Olivia Atkins is concerned, but you are actually very much alive.'  
'Someone mentioned coffee.' I still didn't feel up to moving, my body was leaden, and as I felt Nathaniel lean up on his elbow to look down at me Micah automatically moved back.  
'As much coffee as you want.' He looked so relieved and I realised tears had streaked his face. He kissed me and it was good and solid but I wanted to know why he had been crying.  
'What happened?' I wanted to reach up and touch his cheek but couldn't.  
'Nothing.' He frowned, uncomprehending.  
'You cried.'  
The female voice came again and this time I recognised it. It was Cherry, our very own wereleopard nurse. 'He'll tell you all about it when you've had some water.' She crouched beside the bed behind Micah and smiled at me. 'We need to reintroduce fluids to your body slowly so once you've kept water down we will get the coffee on tap.'  
I nodded. My throat was sore and any liquid would be good right now. She held out a small plastic cup with a straw in it and Micah and Nathaniel enveloped my torso and sat me up. My head tried to roll back but Nathaniel had a hand there to support it without having to be asked and I sipped the water. I wanted to gulp it down but knew that wasn't a good thing, no matter how parched I felt. I looked around while I had the chance. Night had come while I 'slept' and I noticed Jean Claude sitting patiently in the one armchair, smiling at me pleasantly.  
'Hey.' I managed but the straw stuck to my dry lips and Cherry took it off me.  
'How are you feeling, ma petite?'  
'Heavy.'  
'Lay her back down.' Cherry insisted and Micah and Nathaniel laid me back between them.   
I'd seen Edward seated on the other bed with Peter beside him. The atmosphere was really sombre. 'What'd I miss?'  
'Miss?' Micah asked, laying me on my back and making sure the sheets were tucked around me before leaning up on his elbow so I could see him properly. 'What do you mean?'  
'Nathaniel's been crying and,' I swallowed, 'it's like someone died.'  
Edward answered. 'We thought you did.'  
'You mean fake dead or real dead?' I cleared my throat and swallowed against the pain it caused.  
'Real dead.' Cherry replied.  
'The drug did what it was supposed to.' Edward got up and came to the foot of the bed so I could see him. 'But the heart rate monitor lost trace of your beat in the middle of the video call.'  
'And because the call lasted so long we weren't actually sure if we lost you or not.' Micah explained. 'We weren't allowed in to check on you until Edward was finished on the call and he had no idea how frantic it was getting in here.'  
'But it was just the monitor?' I checked.  
'Just the monitor.' He nodded. 'We repositioned it and it blipped again but it took a while to get it in the right place.'  
'So what upset you?' I looked at Nathaniel, not understanding. 'Just the fact you couldn't get a beat?'  
He shook his head and closed his eyes. 'That, but when you put that with the fact you looked,' he nuzzled into my neck, 'you looked dead, you were grey and I couldn't even tell if you were there or not. Even your scent changed.'  
'Sorry.' I thought I should apologise even though I couldn't help it.  
'Don't be sorry, you're okay.' He kissed me again.  
'And how about the fact I'm naked?' I asked. 'Because I don't remember that being part of the plan.'  
Micah answered. 'Lillian thought it was best we get the pard touch on you, as she put it. Although you had the antidote your body would still process it quicker if it treated it like a wound and you had the skin to skin healing.'  
'Makes sense.' I managed an almost nod.  
'Once you feel strong enough to sit up we'll give you some more water,' Cherry explained, 'then we can send one of these men out for coffee.'  
I did my part nod again and sighed. I was glad I was alive, not half as glad as these guys apparently, but there was nothing for me to do but lay here and let the rest of the effects wear off.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prep for Olivia Atkins' arrival begins. Anita is allowed to make some calls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, have you seen 'Not All You Seem' yet? It's my mini Anita/Edward ficlet! Only just under 4k words so should only take a little while to read, but I'd love to know what you think!

Olivia Atkins was more than willing to come and lend a hand in the search for me when Micah called. She would gladly lend her power to him to try and seek me out.  
Micah told me he had had to include in his missing persons report that Jean Claude had felt some extreme pain from me in the run up to me going missing and in turn Jean Claude had prepared Richard in case he was asked. It would satisfy the curiosity of Ms Atkins if she dug enough to discover that the triumvirate had felt something.  
It was all over the news that I was missing and Zebrowski and Micah had been on the phone together often, collating information. I was glad Micah was a good little actor but I still disliked lying to Zebrowski, not because he was a cop but because he was my friend, and he would be worried for real. I'd be glad when this was all over for more than one reason.  
Jean Claude confirmed that he and Micah had a lesson planned for Atkins, one that would resonate through the entire country and make the point that this nor any other plot would be tolerated. I liked the lesson plan. I got to be a big part of it. It had to be done in such a way that word would travel and certain representatives from around the country had been invited by Jean Claude to come and 'help' look for me, when in fact they would be witnesses. Micah told Atkins to bring something dressy to meet the King of America too so she wouldn't feel underdressed. To me it felt a little like asking her to pick her own funerary attire but hey, she started it.  
But again we had the waiting. Atkins' flight would land the following day and Micah would meet her at the airport. I got to be transported back to the circus with Nathaniel again to await tomorrow night. No doubt about it, Nathaniel was a great distraction from claustrophobia, if not a cure entirely.  
Richard agreed to bring as many members of the lukoi along as he could, Rafael would be there with a contingent of rats, Narcissus and his hyena's, Nicky and his lions, you name it, any preternatural group affiliated with us offered to come along, although most of the were leaders knew the truth as they were affiliated with me in one way or another. It was going to be a big night.  
Jean Claude, being Jean Claude, had an outfit in mind for me. He always had something tucked away, just my size, for going into battle. This though, as it wasn't an actual fight, was more revealing than I would ever have worn for an actual battle. I had a lot of skin on show which would be tempting for anyone clawed so I was glad it wasn't a fight. It was black, of course, but for a change it had hints of red. The top was corset style, and honestly I wondered if they had had a movie night of Van Helsing without me. Fitted tightly at my waist and under my breasts the black corset had small red roses on it, over my breasts was black material that really gave it a gypsy type vibe, off the shoulder and across my upper arms leaving my forearms bare for my wrist sheaths. I also had on my shoulder rig and Browning but that probably goes without saying. The pants were skin tight leather, fitting where they touched, but the sides had wide laces just like the ones Jean Claude owned, showing my pale flesh beneath in about a three inch line, until they met my boots. The boots came to my knees with a pirate style top that flared over my knee at the front. The heels were two inches and I could walk confidently in them and still not stand taller than Micah. We were a united front, the Maneaters and Blooddrinkers Clan against the one who had threatened their Nimir-Ra, all to get in the pants of the Nimir-Raj. Micah had a costume too, and we matched. He had leather pants like mine with similar boots only with a lower heel and his chest was bare. He wore leather bracers on his forearms just so our arms matched in colour and his hair curled around his shoulders and chest. The main difference other than him not being squeezed into a corset was that I was wearing make up. Very dark make up. Nathaniel had made me sit still while he applied shadow, eyeliner and mascara and when I blinked at myself in the mirror the effect was astonishing. He'd done that cats eye thing with the eyeliner so I had a flicked out tail effect on each eye with a blending of black, grey and silver shadows across the rest of my lids. My red lipstick finished my face off. It was startlingly effective.  
Jean Claude came in while Nathaniel had me standing before the full length mirror teasing my curls to sit just so. We had changed in the office overlooking the circus so there was no chance of me accidentally bumping into this woman. I looked at Jean Claude out of the corner of my eye and wished I could look at him fully. He looked amazing. Okay, he always looked amazing but, wow. He was wearing black leather pants like Micah and I, with the same boots, but he wore a crisp white shirt, tucked in but undone all the way, with the usual frills of lace at his chest and wrists. He wore a calf length frock coat in the same red as the roses on my corset, with gold brocade embroidery all over it. He looked like he was between changes going from a BDSM party to a costume ball. And on his head was a gold crown. And he came towards us with a box in his hands.  
'Oh the fuck no.' I said, turning to face him as it dawned on me what was likely to be in the box, not caring that it made Nathaniel pull my hair.  
'Ma petite, you are my queen, and the Nimir-Ra to the leopards which makes you their queen too. We are making an example of this woman and visuals help. This will remind everyone of our statuses.' He opened the box and showed me a slightly smaller, more delicate version of the crown he was wearing.  
'Why do I have to wear one when Micah doesn't? I thought we were a united front tonight?' I just stared at it.  
'Micah does have one, slightly smaller than ours, however it has been delivered to him. He is delivering our quarry up to the circus as we speak, with his crown intact.' He held the box closer to me but it was Nathaniel who took it out of the box and made me turn back to the mirror so he could get it straight and mess my curls around and over the band so I finished up looking like I had a tiara instead.  
'Can't wear it.' I put my hand up to take it off but Nathaniel and Jean Claude each caught a hand and stopped me. 'Seriously, I am not used to having something on my head, it's going to distract me.' I looked between them.  
'It's fastened in fine, it fits you perfectly, it won't come off, you just need to get used to the feel of it.' Nathaniel assured me, letting go of my hand.  
I sighed and looked to Jean Claude. 'Do I have to wear it?'  
'You are queen.' He reminded me, again. 'We have to make a point this evening and this will help.  
I groaned. 'All right.' I looked at my reflection and screwed up my nose. 'Can I please now call Zebrowski? You've made me put it off all day but now we're about to go kick her ass, can I put him out of his misery? Oh and my dad!'  
Jean Claude gave me a look and I wasn't sure if it was a yes, no, or what am I going to do with you. In the end he spoke; 'Oui, you may now inform whoever you wish you are safe, but please, do not make them long conversations, we have somewhere to be.'  
'Just five minutes, ten tops.' I promised, brushing my hand over his arm as I went and sat at the desk, calling Zebrowski's number from memory.  
He answered after half a ring, like he'd had the phone in his hand already. 'Zebrowski.'  
'Lucy, I'm home!'  
'Anita?!' His voice held complete disbelief.  
'Yeah, it's me.'  
'Where the fuck are you? What the fuck happened? Are you all right?'  
'I'm okay, I just got to the circus. Long story short I got kidnapped by some stupid group looking to ransom me off to Jean Claude and it took a few days for me to convince them of the error of their ways.' We had discussed my excuse long and hard already I was just glad I got to tell Zebrowski over the phone, not in person.  
'Error of their ways with extreme prejudice?' He asked.  
'It was an issue with another group of preternaturals, so it comes under Jean Claude's jurisdiction.'  
'Are they dead? In fact, you know what, I don't care. Thank fuck you're okay.'  
'I'm okay. Sorry for all the extra paperwork you're going to get.'  
'I'm not, I'm really, really not. Try come down to the station tomorrow, okay? I want to check you're really all right.'  
'I'll be there.'  
'I'll have coffee for you.'  
'Decent stuff, right? Not that cheap crap you drink, because when a woman's been kidnapped you have to pander to her a bit.'  
'I will pick you the most expensive coffee I can find.' He laughed. 'I can't wait to call Katie, she's been worried sick.'  
'Apologise to her for me.' I felt bad that so many people had worried so much.  
'No apologies, Anita, you didn't do it on purpose.'  
'No, that's true.' I lied. 'Listen, I have to call my dad and let him know he's not rid of the black sheep of the family yet. But I'll see you tomorrow.'  
'Until tomorrow.' He said, then followed up with, 'Just hold on; there was a clunk and I realised I was on speaker. 'Hey everyone, Blake's alive and well!' There were whoops and cheers. 'Everyone's pleased to hear you're okay.'  
'Me too, Zebrowski, me too.'  
We hung up and I sighed before calling Dad, but it wasn't him who answered.  
'Hey, Josh.'  
'Anita? Oh crap, Dad, it's Anita!' He screamed in my ear and I held the phone away while Nathaniel laughed. 'You're okay? What happened? Was it vampires? Or lycanthropes? Where were you?'  
'Isn't it enough I'm okay?' I tried.  
'Yeah, it's awesome you're okay, I was so worried, but come on, you can tell me.'  
'Another time, is Dad there?'  
'Yeah, he's here, can I come stay? I want to hear what happened.'  
'Just watch the news, I'm sure it'll get out.' I rested my head on my hand then Dad was there before Josh could even say goodbye.  
'Anita, is that really you?' His voice sounded strained and again I felt bad.  
'It's me, I'm okay.' I assured him. 'But I don't have long to talk, I just wanted to let you know I'm safe and sound and I'll call you soon and explain everything.'  
'Can't you explain now? Your old man's been worried.'  
'Briefly, I have to go to the cops.' I lied some more. 'Basically, kidnapping gone wrong. It's been dealt with but I'm glad to be home.'  
I heard him sigh and when he spoke again his voice was full of emotion. 'I'm glad you're safe, baby. You take care and call me tomorrow, promise?'  
'I promise, Dad.' I swallowed past the lump that had appeared in my throat. Nathaniel noticed and came up beside me and perched on the desk, taking my hand. I smiled up at him in his leather pants and fishnet vest, grateful of the touch.  
'I love you.'  
'I love you too.' I hung up before he could say anything else. I sighed and composed myself. That had been hard. 'Okay. Can we kill this bitch's ass now?'  
'At your convenience, ma petite, at your convenience.' Jean Claude smiled.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The despicable Oliva Atkins gets what she deserves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm being nice, because the next chapter is the summing up, and the end! So you can have both today!

Jean Claude went to prepare to take his seat on his throne beside the ring. The ring in the circus had been decked out so his raised throne on one side was almost as well lit as the centre ring itself. All the bleachers were full to the rafters with our allies, vampires and lycanthopes alike, along with our invitees. Micah had escorted Olivia Atkins to the edge of the ring where she would be invited to the centre to be greeted and welcomed by the King. He then left her to come to the reception area of the office upstairs, explaining to her that as the one who had invited her Jean Claude wanted him to make an entrance. I had my part of the script memorised but from a certain point, we'd be winging it. And killing her. I also knew that Edward and Peter stood either side of Jean Claude's throne wearing cloaks and death masks. They got to look big and scary when in truth they were the only humans here.  
I checked the Browning was ready to go, having removed my usual first two steel bullets, and put it up, flexing my fingers.  
'Are you all ready?' Micah asked, taking one of my hands.  
'Yeah, I think so.' I nodded.  
'You seem, edgy.' He frowned at me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me to him.  
'A bit. How many people did you say she'd brought with her as entourage?'  
'Ten including her but our leopards are flanking the circle with hers interspersed between them. Any who interferes won't be leaving that ring alive.'  
'She's not going to know what hit her.' I ran my hands up his bare back.  
'That's the idea.' He looked at the clock on the wall. 'Okay, let's get out there and wait for our cue.' He walked me backwards towards the door so I didn't have to let him go and it made me laugh.  
'We'll fall down the stairs if we go like this.'  
'Then she really wouldn't know what hit her.' He kissed my cheek softly before letting me go and offering me his right arm.  
We went out the door and stood in the pitch darkness awaiting our cue. We could see Jean Claude taking his seat on his throne and the centre ring lit brightly. It was Asher's voice that broke over the area, filling the silence with his confident, accented words.  
'We come here this night to welcome a visiting alpha who has come to help us in our search for a member of our great family. Our King wishes to greet the alpha, acknowledge her personally to all the people in and of his realm.'  
That was Atkins' cue. She walked confidently to the centre of the ring and I realised she had taken Micah's advice to dress up literally. She had on a bright blue dress that hugged every curve of her body to her ankles, a long slit from above her hip to the floor revealed a long line of tanned skin. She was tall and slender and extremely beautiful, from what I could see, blonde hair tied up on her head in a complicated knot.  
She swept a low curtsey to Jean Claude who waved her to stand and we started our way slowly down the stairs in the darkness.  
'Welcome, Olivia Atkins of the Throat Gougers Clan.' Jean Claude spoke clearly and almost too noncommittally, as though he was less than interested.   
'Your Majesty,' her voice was rich and pleasant, as though it should have been dripping from a spoon, 'you honour me by asking for my assistance in finding your human servant.'  
Jean Claude sat up in his chair straighter, the hand he had had his face rested on moving to match the other on the arm of his throne. 'Indeed, that is why you were invited here.' We reached our mark and stopped, awaiting our reveal. Micah squeezed my arm. 'You were invited by the leaders of the Blooddrinkers and Maneaters Clan, correct?'  
'Correct.' She replied, not having realised he used the plural of leaders.  
'And who might they be?'  
She frowned at him and I could from here see her perfectly shaped eyebrows frown. 'They, your majesty?'  
'Who leads the wereleopards of St Louis?'  
'Micah Callahan.' She said confidently.  
'And...?' He prompted.  
She smiled her confusion at him. 'I'm sorry, I thought Anita Blake was missing, that's why I'm here, after all.'  
'Whether here or not she is still Nimir-Ra and Micah's word is hers. I ask again, who invited you into our territory?'  
'Micah Callahan and Anita Blake.' She dutifully replied.  
'Then let us greet the clan who extended their invitation.' He held his hand out towards us and the spotlight hit us. I smiled, and it wasn't pleasant.  
She actually took a stumbling step back, on her face a look of complete shock. She looked like she had seen a ghost. Maybe she thought she had.  
As one Micah and I descended the rest of the stairs. We walked through the sawdust and stopped about two meters from her. Then it was my turn to speak.  
'As Nimir-Ra of the Blooddrinkers and Maneaters Clan I welcome you to our territory and thank you for coming to my aid.' I glanced at Jean Claude who nodded to me. This was where I was allowed to improvise a little. 'Oh but wait, that's not quite right. Let me try again. As Nimir-Ra of the Blooddrinkers and Maneaters Clan I charge you with treason against the King of America by trying to murder his human servant.'  
'I second the charge.' Micah echoed beside me.  
There was a restlessness among her leopards and I watched as she took another step back towards the way she had come in. 'You can't, you have no evidence, I did not...'  
'I have a paper trail that leads back to you.' Micah and I took a step towards her as one. 'Actually I suppose it's a computer trail, as it's not on paper, but it's a trail no less, with your name on it.'  
'Lies!' She lied.  
'Anybody else smell that?' I asked and murmur ran through the crowd.   
Jean Claude spoke then. 'If anyone else here, or nationwide, threatens us, threatens our kingdom, then they should be aware of the consequences. We will not tolerate any attempts to unravel the great tapestry we have woven to aid our kind.'  
He waved his hand towards me and Micah released my arms as I drew the Browning.  
I was aware of some of our leopards and wolves holding back her people and Jean Claude spoke again to halt them, putting power into his words to make them pay attention. 'She has been found guilty of treason, attempted murder, however she is but one woman. If any of her clan retaliate they will meet the same fate as we will see this as another act of defiance, protecting someone who has tried to bring death to their doorstep.'  
The struggling settled but Olivia Atkins took another step back as if she would run. 'No, you can't do this.'  
'Yeah, I can.' I levelled the gun on her and shot her in the chest. The bullets did what they were meant to do and left a big hole, heart taken out. Just to be sure I made the point I fired again rapidly afterwards and took off the top of her head before her body even hit the floor. I walked to the centre of the ring and nodded to Jean Claude before addressing the rest of the room, turning as I spoke. 'Let this serve as a warning, that treason will not be tolerated. To go against one of us is to go against us all. What this woman tried has endangered her entire clan simply for her own selfish ideals. Who is next in command for the Throat Gougers here tonight?'  
A man stepped forward from the far end of the circle and I beckoned him forward. 'I am.' He stood over six foot and came towards me confidently. His skin was a deep brown and his hair tight to his head.  
'Your alpha took it upon herself to offer a bounty for my head. Now she's dead by my hand, which by rights means I can take over your clan. But I don't want to. Can you cope without her, have you alphas enough to continue without intervention?'  
He nodded, stopping a few feet from me, his eyes darting to the corpse beside me. 'She did this off her own back. We don't want war with the most powerful preternatural group in the world.'  
'That's what I wanted to hear. The money she paid was a ridiculous amount we suspect she stole or embezzled from your companies. We are willing to return it to help you support your clan.'  
'We appreciate your generous offer.' He bowed his head to me.  
'What's your name?' I asked as I held my hand out for Micah to join me.  
'Darius. Darius Carter, ma'am.'  
'Darius Carter. You and me, and Micah, are going to stay in touch until you get yourselves up and running, you understand?'  
'Perfectly.'  
I nodded. 'Great.' I looked back at Jean Claude.   
He stood and took a step towards us. 'I call this meeting to an end, and I do not expect to have to call another of its kind.'  
I hoped he was right.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teeny tiny summing up chapter.

The Throat Gougers left without the leoparde lionne, I hoped with enough alphas to take care of themselves. The rest of the visiting masters and clan leaders left with a pretty big warning to spread; don't fuck with us, you will die. I thought it was a pretty good motivational message.  
Edward scheduled another time for him and Peter to come and see us, both for training with the weres and observing them, and for Peter to try and bodyguard me again. He seemed pretty pleased with me although he wouldn't explain why.  
I didn't get put in any more crates, as much fun as Nathaniel and I had had I could think of many other places I'd rather try get my jollies on than in the confines of a box.  
I went to the station to a roaring welcome, with decent coffee just like Zebrowski had promised. There was more hugging than I would have liked but I guess I could forgive them, just this once. I gave my statement, a completely glorified story of kidnapping and escape, and the most general description of people in ski masks you'd ever heard. Zebrowski admitted he was sure these people would never show up but didn't care, he'd leave it as an open case, he was just grateful I was okay.  
I chatted to Dad for a while the next day and he convinced me he needed to see his little girl was okay, so I arranged for Micah, Nathaniel and I to go visit. We booked a hotel nearby and would spend a long weekend upsetting Judith, I mean visiting.  
Jean Claude took the crown back when I threw it at him, telling him it was uncomfortable. He promised me it had looked wonderful and I would get used to it. I scowled at him. He came and put it back on my head, called me his queen and kissed me senseless. Maybe the crown was worth it after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it! That is all the completed works I have in this divergence! I hope you have enjoyed the ride and I will eventually try and write more, but, as I have said, repeatedly, because it basically is my life, I am publishing my own series via Kindle Direct later this year and there's a lot of editing and cover designing to do before I can hit that all important publish button!
> 
> If you have enjoyed this please read my Anita/Edward story, just little ficlets full of feels, smut and action, that is about as far from cannon as you can get, and also my Anita Blake/Merry Gentry series which combines both of LKH's worlds in a bit of a rollercoaster ride! And one more, non Anita story to come, once I finish it, from Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter world, if you like that series too it might be worth a look!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read my works, commented, kudos, even just the hits cheer me up no end, and don't think I don't want to hear from you now it's done! Please stay in touch! 
> 
> I'm going to go cry into my gluten free toast now, that this ride is already over *sob*! Withdrawal will no doubt begin to set in sooner than I would like!
> 
> ∞Andi xxx
> 
> **OVER EXCITED UPDATE!!!**
> 
> I have just published my own novel! I'm so excited!


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